


The Rise of the Son of Skywalker

by asingerofsongs, MayGlenn



Series: Stars and Skies [26]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Badass Finn, Badass Rey, Badass Sensitive Finn, F/M, Family Drama, Finn Skywalker, Force Bond (Star Wars), Force-Sensitive Finn, Gen, Hurt!Finn, Hurt/Comfort, Inappropriate Use of the Force, M/M, Multi, Oral Sex, Over the Top, Parent-Child Relationship, Politics With Porn, Pregnancy, Pregnancy Kink, Reunions, Skywalker Family Feels, That's Not How The Force Works, Vaginal Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-21
Updated: 2019-08-04
Packaged: 2020-01-15 07:12:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 25,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18493978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asingerofsongs/pseuds/asingerofsongs, https://archiveofourown.org/users/MayGlenn/pseuds/MayGlenn
Summary: “Kriffing hell, Kylo Ren is my cousin,” Finn said, horrified. “I hadn’t really thought about it. It’s just...I’m connected to him, I guess. And he’s a terrible human being.”“To be fair, so was I,” Anakin admitted. “Kylo—venerates the wrong part of me. I can only hope that you will carry on the Skywalker legacy in—well, honestly, in any other direction than he is would be an improvement.” He chuckled.Finn sighed and stared unhappily at his hands on the table. He’d thought the pressure to help save the galaxy was oppressive, but this was worse. This was pressure to help save the galaxy and be everything Kylo Ren was not.“But telling someone they're the Chosen One is never good for them,” the Force ghost of Anakin said. “I’m not here to do that. Everyone in the galaxy has the power to bring balance to the Force, to work for good or evil. We Skywalkers just do it in a, ah, more melodramatic way. If there’s anything of use to the universe in our bloodline, it’s the drama.”





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Apologies this is such a long time coming! Reinvigorated and inspired by the trailer, we return! Hopefully we'll finish up our planned arc before the next movie comes out, though we're pretty far off-canon already. Thanks for your patience, and hope you enjoy!

Finn was glad he wasn’t in the middle of the cuddle pile tonight, as he tossed and turned, unable to sleep. 

Rey, who _was_ in the middle of the pile, stirred, and patted his leg sleepily.

“Finn?” she asked without opening her eyes.

Finn sighed softly and put his hand over Rey's.

“I'm fine—just going to get some water,” he told her, and quietly got up.

Rey opened her eyes to blink sleepily at him. “Can’t sleep?”

“Go back to sleep, I'll be right back,” he whispered, gave her a kiss, and then went to pace restlessly in the kitchen.

In one week, he had gone from having one father-in-law to also having not one, but both parents, one of which had been right beside him for years. He knew, now, how honestly he and Sam both came by their affinities for the Force. And he also realized, with gradually increasing panic, that if it was the responsibility of the Jedi and Force users to save their whole universe, that undoubtedly included him, now, as well. Regardless of inexperience or lack of training in the Force, any child of Mara Jade and Luke Skywalker was bound to be powerful enough to be important, whether they wanted that power or not.

He sighed deeply and paused to lean against the sink and drink a glass of water, so at least he could say he'd actually done what he'd told Rey he was going to do, and wondered if she had ever felt the same way he currently felt.

“I can tell you that worrying... _really_ doesn’t help,” said a voice behind him.

Finn wheeled around to see a tall man in Jedi robes and sandy hair standing behind him. Or, he thought his hair might have been sandy, if he could tell what color it was through the blue sheen surrounding him.

“You're not Obi-Wan Kenobi,” Finn told the Force ghost in surprise, but then he frowned. “And I wasn't worrying because I thought it would _help._ It never helps.”

He shrugged one shoulder dismissively. “Not that that has ever helped me to stop worrying,” he added.

“I wouldn't tell you to repress your feelings, either,” the man said matter-of-factly, with an air of calm that seemed well-earned, almost exhausted, rather than natural. He seemed nervous, almost sheepish, and startlingly young—barely older than Finn. “That's even worse.”

He stood there, awkwardly, as neither of them spoke.

“You're a Jedi, but you really don't sound like one. At least, not like the old Jedi. Kind of like Rey, or maybe Luke,” Finn said, now curious who this other young man was—powerful enough to appear as a Force ghost, but young enough to still, a little, lack the polished confidence of Obi-Wan, or even Luke.

“I'm not a Jedi, if that's why you're here,” Finn continued, partially because he wondered if this Force ghost was simply appearing to the wrong person. “...I guess I probably should be, but…” _But I'm better at being a soldier, and I hate that,_ he thought.

“My wife is a Jedi,” he added, “and my son will certainly have to learn to deal with the Force, since he's already using it,” he continued. The other man shifted a little, like he was trying to find some way to look both comfortable and sure of himself. Finn smiled, just slightly—that, at least, he could sympathize with.

“I... _was_. A Jedi,” the man said. “I'm only able to come to you now that you know. Luke is alright, by the way. He's—ah, resting. Communing, sort of, between.”

“That’s reassuring,” Finn responded. “Dr. Kalonia keeps saying he's fine, that she can't find anything wrong with him, but it's still concerning that he won't wake up. Does he know about my mother? Or about me?”

The man nodded, smiling sadly. “Now he does. Welcome to the family.”

“Well, I guess I don’t have to worry about how to tell him, then. Who are you, exactly?” Finn asked, now, though he had his own guess. There were, after all, a limited number of people who were (or had been) both Jedi _and_ related to Luke.

The man blushed, or at least it maybe looked like he might be, through the wispy blue light he was composed of. “I’m your grandfather. Anakin. I’m glad to see at least one of my grandsons doing the right thing and _not_ following in my footsteps. You may know of me as—”

“— _Darth Vader_ !” Finn said, backing up a little. “I was _right_.”

Anakin frowned at him, and Finn wilted a little. Then he realized what Anakin had just said and sat heavily at the table.

“Kriffing hell, Kylo Ren is my _cousin_ ,” he said, horrified.

“Yes,” Anakin said slowly, blinking. “Sorry?”

“I hadn’t really thought about it,” Finn said. “It’s just...I’m connected to him, I guess. And he’s a terrible human being.”

“To be fair, so was I,” Anakin admitted. “Kylo—venerates the wrong part of me. I can only hope that you will carry on the Skywalker legacy in—well, honestly, in any other direction than he is would be an improvement.”

He chuckled.

Finn sighed and stared unhappily at his hands on the table. He’d thought the pressure to help save the galaxy was oppressive, but this was worse. This was pressure to help save the galaxy _and_ be everything Kylo Ren was not.

“But telling someone they're the Chosen One is never good for them,” Anakin said. “I’m not here to do that. _Everyone_ in the galaxy has the power to bring balance to the Force, to work for good or evil. We Skywalkers just do it in a, ah, more melodramatic way. If there’s anything of use to the universe in our bloodline, it’s the drama.”

Anakin's smile softened, and his eyes shone as though with unshed tears as he looked at Finn. “I am _already_ so proud of you. And so sorry. But mostly—proud.”

Finn was, somehow, comforted by this, though he'd been doing nothing out of the ordinary to earn his grandfather's pride.

“The Kenobis are not _precisely_ drama-free, either,” he commented, recalling Rey's family history, and then smiled—but there was a slight, worried edge to it.

“The Force may have bitten off more than it can chew. I imagine a handful of Skywalkers and a Kenobi will account for plenty of drama.”

Anakin smiled softly. “Well, I hope so.”

Finn was quiet for several breaths, listening to the soft ticking of the chronometer on the wall and the quiet nighttime noises just outside.

“What do you do when you know people will expect more from you than you can give them?” he asked, finally, barely loud enough to be heard.

“That's what I'm trying to tell you to ignore,” the former Jedi said swiftly, his eyes flashing. “Let people expect all they want. Maybe they shouldn't expect our family to take care of everything.”

This was beginning to sound a bit more about Anakin than about Finn, but Finn found it comforting, nonetheless.

“On the other hand, I have complete faith in you,” Anakin said more carefully, more calmly. “You could almost, I think, take care of everything. You remind me of Padmé, you know. There was no force strong enough that she wouldn't stand up against in the name of what was right. She didn't have mastery of the Force, but she could move galaxies without it. She's proud of you, too, Finn.”

Finn gave a slight, astonished chuckle at this, and Anakin raised his eyebrows in question.

“Padmé Amidala and Anakin Skywalker are my grandparents. And they're _proud_ of me. It's—incredible? Unbelievable,” he explained, and stifled an unexpected yawn. “Sorry.”

Anakin huffed, not much liking being doubted or yawned at, but when he spoke he sounded kind.

“You're pretty unbelievable, too,” he said, almost playfully, like he was half-teasing him and half-complimenting him. Then he began to fade, like smoke blowing away. “May the Force of Others be with you, Finn.”


	2. Chapter 2

Poe Dameron walked down the halls of the Republic base feeling like an admiral. He was actually wearing his uniform today, and it was actually buttoned up correctly, and his boots were even shined, and BB-8 followed quickly on his heels. “Think this’ll work, buddy?”

[I think it’s a good plan, Friend-Poe. But you shouldn’t celebrate Friend-Small-Sam’s lifeday like this when he’s old enough to remember it.]

“I know, this is just the one time,” Poe sighed, heading to the briefing rooms where he had set up a meeting with Leia, wanting to impress her with how official he _could_ be, in the hopes that she’d go along with this crazy scheme. “You think Finn’s going to be mad?”

[Oh, definitely!]

Poe stopped, and made a face at his droid when they collided into his leg.

[What?] BB-8 burbled indignantly. [He will. It is still a good plan.]

Poe sighed, and stepped to the briefing room. The door whooshed open, revealing not just General Organa, but Admiral Holdo.

Poe barely refrained from making a face this time.

“Poe,” Holdo said, with a warm smile. “Leia asked me to stay to hear your latest plan.”

Poe, rather cattily, half-expected them to gossip about it later, but he forged on, straightening his back and speaking like his plan was fully-formed rather than sort of still half-cocked. “I’m glad you’re here, too, Admiral. I’d like to request a temporary cease-fire.”

Leia and Holdo looked surprised by this, but at least they didn’t look amused.

“Well, Rear Admiral, it isn’t as though we have any active military zones that are currently hot, so I’m not sure what that would look like...” Holdo began, and Poe didn’t quite interrupt her, but continued when she paused:

“And I want to invite every stormtrooper in the galaxy to my husband’s and son’s lifeday party in a week.”

There was a silence as the two women looked at each other, then back at Poe, cycling through wanting to laugh before realizing he was serious, and wondering what the purpose of this was.

“I want to declare the day an Intergalactic Holiday, a day to celebrate all the stormtroopers in the galaxy, whether they’re on our side or not,” Poe went on. “I want them to know what the Republic thinks of them, so that they know they can defect any time. When I first met Finn, he joked that we could win the war just by giving stormtroopers _chocolate_ , because all they’ve ever eaten is protein paste.”

Holdo looked skeptically bemused, now. “You want to, what, drop invitations and candy bars instead of bombs?”

“If we can get them deployed quickly enough, absolutely,” Poe said. “I was thinking chocolate cake for the party itself.”

“And how do you plan to defend a birthday party—attended by _noncombatants_ , I would add—against the inevitable attack that this would also be inviting?” Leia asked.

Poe seemed serious, but his plan was…unusual, to say the least.

In response, Poe actually smiled, a little evilly. “...So you think they’ll fall for it, then?”

Leia looked alarmed, but Holdo returned the evil smile.

“I think we’d have to be a _little_ less obvious. But I think it could work. Broadcast it over all known First Order channels.”

“Exactly,” Poe said, sitting at the table with them, and leaning in. “We’ll be ready for the First Order in case they do attack, but we’ve heard enough from the stormtroopers we do have, and the SRTF has run the numbers. As many as 40% would defect immediately upon being given the chance. So, we give them the chance. If they don’t, we’ve got a large enough military force to defend this system and take them out.”

“...And if they _didn’t_ attack, it would be a blow to their morale,” Holdo agreed. “Letting a slight like that go unanswered.”

“Right,” Poe said. “I think Terex is cocky enough, and Kylo Ren would be hotheaded enough. Snoke’s an unknown entity, but at worst he doesn’t let them rise to the bait.”

“I see,” Holdo agreed.

Leia looked between the two of them, astonished that they were _agreeing_ with each other. It made her feel off balance.

But there was a certain logic to Poe's plan that she had to admit was sound, given what they knew of the First Order's current capacity. If they could cut their remaining forces down even further, provide the opportunity for defecting stormtroopers, _and_ utterly demoralize the ones that were left, perhaps they would be within reach of ending the First Order.

“We will plan for every eventuality we can think of, if we do this. I will not risk civilians and children for the sake of trapping the First Order,” she stated.

“Of course not,” Poe said, firmly. “That’s my family on the ground, ma’am.”

“But I agree this _could_ work,” she added, and even allowed herself her own small, wicked smile.

“Ideally, really, they _don’t_ attack, it just stirs things up in their ranks,” Poe offered. “And we have a great party and eat way too much cake. But if they _did…_ ”

“It’s also excellent PR,” Holdo said, considering him with a new eye. “You ever thought about running for political office, Dameron?”

Poe actually snorted. “Me? A politician?”

He almost thought she was insulting him before he remembered who he was talking to: two career politicians who were good at their jobs, and he had to backpedal or seem rude. “I mean. With my record? I’d get myself thrown out on my first day. Nice try, though.”

…

“Okay, run that by me again. You want to do _what_?” Finn asked, “Did you get a head injury at some point today that I don't know about?”

When they had decided to celebrate all the stormtroopers’ lifedays as one enormous holiday, he hadn't actually planned on inviting the ones still in the First Order. Doing so was practically daring the First Order to attack them.

Finn stared at Poe’s head like he was trying to find sign of injury there, going so far as to lift a curl off his forehead.

Poe ducked out of the way. “Hey, come on! Either I’m wrong and we’ll have a perfectly enjoyable, crazy lifeday party for you and the kid and the SRTF, _or_ I’m giving you the First Order practically on a silver platter as a lifeday present! Also making yours and our son’s lifeday into an Intergalactic Holiday? How’s that?”

“This better mean I never have to work on my lifeday again,” Finn said, feigning grouchiness more than anything, and then sighed. The problem was, he knew the plan had a strong likelihood of working, and couldn't very well argue against it just because it was inconvenient or ruined his lifeday.

“What does the General think?” he asked instead, “And did you already talk to Rey?”

“Talk to me about what?” Rey asked.

She paused in the doorway as she entered and raised her eyebrows at Poe's uniform, which he'd not been wearing when she'd gone to help Kes and the ex-stormtroopers fix some of the farm equipment.

“Special occasion, Rear Admiral Dameron?” she asked, lightly teasing.

“Only a meeting with the brass,” Poe said, kissing her in greeting. “About making Stormtrooper Lifeday an intergalactic holiday.”

Rey narrowed her eyes. “Fine so far.”

“...And inviting the stormtroopers in the First Order.”

Rey blinked once. “Ah.”

There was a pause.

“...I don't _like_ it,” Finn finally said, “but if Leia thinks it's a good idea, who am I to argue?”

Rey snorted.

“Yes, you would never _ever_ do something like that,” she agreed, so solemn and serious that Finn knew immediately she was teasing him, too. “Argue with Leia?”

“That was _one time_ ,” he told her, exasperated, and she grinned wickedly.

“You threatened to resign and ended up getting promoted!” Poe laughed, glad he was out of the hot seat, however briefly.

Finn groaned softly and covered his face with a palm. “Anyway, I _can_ argue with you and Poe!”

“So we're planning a party _and_ a battle?” Rey asked brightly. “We should invite Maz!”

“Maz is great for a party _or_ a battle,” Poe agreed, and looked nervously at Finn. “I mean, the battle is still a contingency. Officially, we’re just making sure the party is well-guarded. We’re going to have the press there, and I know Javos can take care of herself, but there’s going to be kids and stuff, so we’re not _hoping_ for a fight, we’re just preparing for one. There’s a difference. The First Order may not be that stupid.”

Poe and Rey shared a look, like they hoped the First Order _was_ that stupid.

“You're kidding, right? An opportunity to attack all of us _and_ a bunch of kids _and_ recapture a bunch of defectors? The only way to make them more likely to attack would be to try to keep it a secret,” Finn answered, and at the growing smile on Rey's face, held both hands up like he was trying to stop an oncoming speeder. “No, wait, that wasn't a suggestion! I wasn't helping!”

“I mean, that’s a dangerous game,” Poe pointed out, after they had a good laugh at Finn’s alarm. “We’re either inviting every stormtrooper in the galaxy to piss them off, or we’re just declaring it a nice peaceful galactic holiday, and letting them hear about the party on the news. You know, I think Holdo is inviting the Chancellor.”

“That’ll be funny, watching a bunch of toddlers try to listen to a political speech,” Rey said, looking like _she_ was not excited about listening to a political speech.

“Anyway, that means we’ll have as much military protection as the Republic can muster,” Poe said.

“What if they show up with another Starkiller? Or another _Supremacy_ , for that matter?” Finn asked. Not that they had any reason to believe either of those things existed, but who knew what the First Order was hiding in the outer reaches of the galaxy, or how strong the Force barriers were that Luke and Rey had established months ago? Or how strong the physical force fields over that were?

If Finn had been worried about his spouses’ sanity before, he was comforted that at least this gave them pause.

“They _don’t_ have another Starkiller,” Poe insisted, with about 99% confidence. “And if we could take the _Supremacy_ before, we can take it again, since it’s probably still in two pieces. And, if, somehow, impossibly, they show up with another Starkiller, remember that we beat the last one with one stealth mission and a couple dozen X-wings. We have the entire Republic fleet here now.”

Finn looked from Rey to Poe and sighed deeply, but he could find no other objections at present except that he just didn't like the idea of baiting the First Order.

“At least Sam won't remember that time his parents turned his lifeday party into an ambush,” he grumbled.

“Well, he is your clone, so maybe he _will_ just so he can be mad about it forever,” Poe retorted, waiting until Finn’s jaw dropped before he laughed and lifted him up and spun him around, promising he was joking.

“Oh, _that’s_ it—” Finn, began, but, willing to be mollified, he laughed as Poe actually spun him, like a scene out of one of the holonovelas he loved so much. When Poe set him down, he remained in his arms, content to press close and repay him with a kiss.

Rey shook her head fondly at her husbands and put an arm around each of them, holding them close and pressing kisses to their cheeks. She leaned in to whisper in their ears, “I’m fertile.”

Finn whooped and swept Rey off her feet. She clung to him with her legs around his hips.  

“Never thought I’d think of that as the ultimate pick-up line,” Poe laughed, rushing up the stairs ahead of them to get the doors.

“Well _I_ never thought I’d be having sex with you ever again after that one, but here we are,” Finn retorted.

“See? You _like_ holding grudges!” Poe accused, as he backed into the bedroom and Finn set Rey down.

The bedroom was messy, lived-in, reflective of their busy lives, and Poe reached to tug Rey down with him as he flopped back onto the unmade bed.

“Only sometimes,” Finn replied. He looked down at Rey and Poe for a moment, Rey half on top of Poe and already nuzzling against his neck until she nipped him and he yelped in surprise. Finn laughed and joined them, pressing close to Poe's side until Rey had no choice but to shift so she was on top of them both.

“I'm sorry, did you want something?” she asked him mildly.

He gave her an angelic grin. “I thought _you_ did.”

Rey and Poe burst out laughing again.

“Force, Poe, you’re right!” Rey giggled. “What happened to that mild-mannered stormtrooper we fell in love with?”

Poe tugged Finn down on top of them, hooking a leg and an arm around him so he couldn’t move. “Mild-mannered? This guy? Son of Luke Freaking Skywalker and Mara Kriffing Jade? He’s got badass in his blood.”

“I thought you said we don’t talk about parents in the bedroom, Poe.”

Poe made a face at Rey. “Touché.”

“But you _could_ keep talking about how badass I am,” Finn suggested, being outrageously vain just to make his spouses laugh. He squirmed in Poe's hold and hummed.

“Or I could tell you how badass you are,” he offered.

Poe beamed. “Yeah, you like that, don’t you? Wonder if I could just tell you how wonderful you are until you come in your pants.”

He combined this threat with a very light touch to the inside of Finn’s thigh that he rocked into.

“Sorry, haven’t got time for that,” Rey said, grabbing them each by the chin. “You put a baby in me first, and then fool around.”

Poe just laughed.

“Aw, love, you're so romantic,” Finn teased as he shifted so he was next to Poe, with Rey laying across them both.

“I could _romantically_ remove your clothes,” she purred, but then glanced over at Poe and grinned. “ _Or_ I could romantically demand my two handsome, adoring husbands help me remove _all_ of our clothes.”

She rolled off them and sat back on her knees.

“ _Or_ ,” and here her eyes twinkled, “or I could make you _want_ to.”

Poe and Finn looked at each other.

“Rey, we want…” Poe began, and then caught the way the light glinted in Rey’s eyes, making them look almost blue. She waved her fingers in front of his nose.

“ _Oh_.” Poe found himself oddly turned on by this idea, or at least intrigued. “Like with the Force? I thought you said that wouldn’t work on us?”

Rey opened herself to her power in the Force. They weren’t remotely in the realm of weak-willed, but if they just--submitted to it, maybe. She wanted them to want it, like Finn wanted to be teased and taken care of, like Poe wanted to be tied up and tormented. She wanted the Force to want it, because she was using the Force.

“I bet… it could work _really_ well. If we wanted it to,” Finn said, mouth a little dry all of a sudden. He nodded, warming to the idea the more he considered it, almost eager. He wrestled his attention back and looked at Poe.

“You're okay, though? With having the Force used on you?” he asked. Poe certainly didn't _look_ hesitant. If anything, he looked interested—not quite eager, but Finn could see that telltale little raise of his eyebrows and the sharp look in his eyes. He was game.

“I don’t know what we’re waiting for, Sammy’s not gonna sleep forever,” Poe said, and kissed Rey hard.

When he came away, his eyes were lit blue, and his whole body tingled. It was like being restrained, and gave him the rush that followed pain or panic, but he was also sure he was—or could be—under his own power, the second he wanted to be. Only, he didn’t want to be.

“Rey,” he groaned, and pushed her back to the bed to finish undressing her, kissing her, hard, and kissing down her body like a man possessed.

He could say nothing for a long time, and for a few seconds Rey thought that might be an accident, until she thought she might like to hear him speak, and it all came pouring out of him: “I love you, gods, I’m gonna put a baby in you, Rey, sweetheart, my love, Finn, _help_ me...”

Finn watched curiously, reaching for their bond in the Force and drowning in it a little until Poe asked for his help. When he blinked stupidly, Rey laughed and tugged on his wrist until he was on top of her.

“Come on, love, come help,” she purred, and he kissed her gladly, letting her take control.

“Mmmm, Rey,” he hummed when he pulled away from the kiss, feeling like he'd suddenly just decided to be drunk—and like he could suddenly decide not to be, if he wanted to. But _why_ would he want to, he wondered distantly as he nuzzled Rey's neck and nipped softly at the line of her collarbone and down between her breasts.

Finn usually liked to take things slow, but the Force thrummed through him urgently, somehow—not a sensation he was used to in the Force, if he was honest, and maybe that was Rey or maybe it was Poe, but their bond was wide open and singing between the three of them. It was so good it filled all his senses, and made everything tingle with desire, like everything itched to get ahold of his loves, to bring them joy.

Poe felt it more urgently, already had his face buried between Rey’s legs, his tongue on her clit, and had a hand on Finn’s cock, working him to hardness. He wanted Finn to fuck him, but he knew Rey wouldn't allow that, and that was thrilling, too.

Rey moaned, hips rolling, curling her fingers into Poe’s hair, and tugging Finn into a searing kiss. His eyes were blue, too, and she almost thought of that nightmare she used to have, except this felt too good.

Finn tried to speak, to tell them how good this was and how good they were, but it came out as more of a whimper. His senses were full of Rey and Poe, completely overwhelmed, but he somehow needed _more_ , always more of them, and the needing was as thrilling as the having.

If Poe didn't slow down, Finn was going to come before they did anything.

“No, you don't,” Rey growled at him, and Finn kissed her, begging. But she only smiled, and when they parted briefly, she gave him a wicked, wild grin that forbade him even from rolling hips to meet the rhythm of Poe's hand.

“Where's that legendary stamina?” Poe teased, a bit delayed, like he had to ask for permission to speak before he could do it.

Rey felt like she was everywhere around them, and she was, but only because they were touching her and tasting her wherever they could, moaning for more. She was using the Force, they were sure, to touch them, and tease them, to make everything in them _need_ her.

“We want to put a baby in you,” Poe hissed, like he was trying to talk through a prostate massage.

Finn was caught up in _need_ and _want_ and _Rey_ and _oh yes_ , he did want to do that. He nodded dumbly in agreement with Poe, but Rey wanted to hear him say it.

“Want to—wanna make a baby—with you,” he said haltingly, because now Rey had her hand over Poe's, and they stroked him together until they drew a moan out of him.

“Oh, I think you two want _more_ than that,” Rey teased.

“I mean, this is better than jerking off into a cup at the doctor’s office, yes,” Poe said, and then gasped as a phantom pain stung through him, like Rey could find that part of his brain that got something out of a little bit of pain with his pleasure directly, without having to actually hurt him. He moaned, eyelids fluttering as he tried to inch closer to her.

“You’re entirely too sassy for someone entirely at my mercy, Rear Admiral,” she hummed, biting his lip.

“You knew this when you married me,” Poe replied.

“And wanted his kid,” Finn finished, kissing the back of her neck, across her shoulders. “You should just want mine. I’m the good husband, remember?”

“Traitor,” Poe moaned.

They both rocked against her, reaching around her to stroke their husband’s dick in perfect sync. They each had their other hands on her, Poe’s thumb on her clit and Finn’s fingers buried inside her. They each had their mouths on her, Poe kissing her and Finn sucking a bruise on her neck, all of them undulating in unison. The moment felt sacred, even amidst the profanities, mostly coming from Poe.

Rey felt so good—and so pleased with herself, with the way Poe and Finn were both now sometimes substituting desperate, needy sounds for actual speech. Finn, with his fingers inside her, crooked them just to see how she might respond, and she shivered. He raised his head from where he'd buried his face against her neck and grinned at the feral look in her eyes as commanded him to do that again.

He obeyed, because this, _this_ was all he ever could want, making his beloveds feel so good and so loved, and he pressed close to them as if to assure himself that they knew.

And maybe also because he'd realized, with both horror and delight, that Rey wasn't going to _let_ him come early, or at all, no matter what clever and dirty things Poe did to him, until _she_ wanted to. It was like when they teased him until he couldn't think straight or use words, but _better_.

“Please,” he tried, begging, “Please let me.”

Rey was slick, and ready, and he begged again.

“Please, Rey, love, wanna fuck you.”

“I want both of you,” Rey said, firmly. “And that’s going to take _time_.”

Poe whined and bit her shoulder, but she could tell they both were loving this.

Their Force bond took them deeper, deeper into each other, closer, until the whole thing exploded out again, with everything and nothing around them at once. The Force shone around them, connecting them, lighting up their connection to the universe, their place in it and in each other.

And Finn could be patient, waiting here in the Force, because he _wanted_ to do what Rey wanted them to do, _wanted_ to make this as good for her as she was making it for them, and _wanted_ to be here in the Force with her and Poe.

It was like being drunk, or like when they'd Force-bonded. And when Rey finally, _finally_ gave them what they wanted, Finn could have whimpered with both relief and desperation.

When she finally let them slide into her—ordered them to—but really— _really?_ —they were both of them ready to believe enough in the Force that they could believe they were going to magically both impregnate her in the same night. Somewhere in the back of their minds they knew they’d be back at the doctor’s on base jerking off into a cup in another month to try to do this with the aid of science, but for now, right now, when they were both sliding against each other inside her tight channel, they would believe anything to get off.

And it was there for Rey, too, and she felt it and trusted it, and moved with it and felt it. It made more sense to her than the sex, but her boys had that taken care of.

“Wait for it,” she said, like the timing of it was important: “wait for it.”

She knew she was driving them crazy. Poe and Finn couldn’t tell if she was using the Force to constrict their cocks and physically prevent orgasm, or if she was just mind-tricking them into thinking they couldn’t. They wouldn’t put either past her.

“Rey,” Finn begged.

“Damn it,” Poe said, and they kissed each other over her shoulder. Poe was trembling. Finn was sweating.

Rey reached around to hug both of them with one arm, arching with their movements and adjusting them so it was good for her, and finally, finally, said, “Okay.”

Poe screamed—Finn was beyond screaming. It might well have been like the first time they Force bonded together, like being intoxicated with each other, not sure where one ended and the others began. It might have been like flying, that post-scene subspace feeling that Poe sometimes craved. It might have been like deep meditation, being in perfect peace with the world and yourself.

But, as it was, Poe and Finn immediately passed completely out.

Rey, when she was ready, gently disentangled herself from both of them and nuzzled their cheeks—but they were out, truly. For a brief moment, she wondered if perhaps she might have broken them, but they looked far too content to be broken, and so once she had caught her breath, she rose and went to the bathroom for damp towels to clean them all up.

Both of them batted at her, and at the cool towel, when she cleaned the sweat from their faces and wiped up what other mess they'd made. She quieted them with kisses and flung the towel in the direction of the clothes hamper before nestling down with them.

One they were all settled, again tangled around each other, arms and legs wrapped together and comfortable, Rey took a deep breath and closed her eyes. They were both there in the Force, still completely open to her and unshielded, and their utter trust in her was overwhelming for a moment. But it was also comforting, and real, and so very sweet.

This time they all breathed a deep, contented sigh together, and Rey let herself join them in that warm, glowing space they shared in each other and in the Force.

_This is it._

And then Sam cried, awake from his nap, and they had to argue about whose turn it was to go get him.


	3. Chapter 3

“Oh my gods, I can’t believe we lost our son!” Poe cried.

“ _ We _ ? You were supposed to be watching him!” Rey shouted back. 

If planning a Lifeday party for all the stormtroopers in the galaxy was a little crazy, then planning on the First Order crashing that party was  _ completely insane _ . It was bigger than their wedding, and in many ways a bigger deal, so it helped that Poe hadn’t had seventeen groomzilla meltdowns this time—yet. 

“I’ll try Finn again,” Poe said, reaching for his comlink. 

“I’ll try Dad,” Rey added. 

“On his own  _ lifeday _ ,” Poe lamented, hitting his forehead multiple times. “He’s going to divorce us. If anything happens to that kid—oh  _ hey _ , Finno, baby! You found Sam—I mean...” 

“Hey—weren't  _ you  _ watching Sam?” Finn asked as he reached up to take Sam off his shoulders. “I just caught him about to splash around in a puddle of fuel!” he said, his voice aggrieved, bordering on scolding.

“Ah. Were we?” Rey asked innocently. 

“Crap. What?” Poe said, dumbly. 

“Wait.  _ Starship fuel _ ? Sam!” Rey yelped, and reached to take him from Finn, checking for any injuries, especially anything that could be associated with highly volatile starship fuel.

He was fine, but Finn noted her alarm, and he chuckled as he handed Sam over to her.

“Kidding—but you  _ were _ supposed to be watching him, and you _ didn't,”  _ he told her.

“Jess had him. She was teaching him to say “old” when she asks how old Papa is,” Finn told Poe.

“Oh, great,” Poe said, shutting the door to the old barn where he and Rey had been busy. “I mean, I promise we were  _ working… _ ”

“The shield generator is good to go. We don’t need to worry about space-to-ground missiles.” 

“And the whole squadron is ready to be deployed if anyone shows up with TIEs,” Poe added, with a grin. “The  _ whole  _ squadron.”

“But in the meantime, we have birthday boys to spoil, don’t we?” Rey said, blowing raspberries on Sam’s belly until he shrieked. 

“Birfday boy!” Sam said delightedly. 

Poe clapped Finn on the back. “I think this is going to be the best birthday-turned-national holiday ever. Come inside, let me give you your present before everyone else gets here, buddy.” 

“I’ll see how Kes is doing,” Rey said, since her present was going to have to wait.

“Abbo!” Sam demanded, and so he went with Rey while Finn took Poe's hand and let him lead the way into the house.

“Did you see all the tables? Jess sent Deeks to supervise decorating them. I think he's the only one who can keep up with the children we rescued on Jedha…” Finn told him, having passed the barely-controlled chaos of Deeks, the children, a few harried Jedhans, and most of the staff from the daycare center at the base.

“Yes, but, gods, can you imagine him being a parent? Or in charge of anything?” Poe laughed, though Deeks was on his way to making Cadet First Class  _ already _ . 

They made their way into the house, where a gaggle of relatives were gathered, including Breha, Poe’s cousin, who sat with a familiar blue-skinned reporter. 

“Suralinda, are you working today?” Poe asked, wincing. 

“If you don’t want them to send any other reporters…”

He sighed. “Okay. Give us a minute. Finn I’m sure has a great speech prepared—”

“Hey! What kind of Lifeday present is that?!” 

“—Which  _ I’m  _ going to give, obviously,” Poe amended, and turned pleading eyes on her. “Give me ten?” 

“I didn’t know you were that quick, Poe,” Breha teased, “though that might explain Rey’s problem getting pregnant…” 

“ _ Breha Bey _ ,” Poe said firmly, and glared at Suralinda, too. “I’ll be with you in a minute.” 

Chasing Finn upstairs, Poe shut the door behind them. 

“This is getting...big,” Poe confessed, overwhelmed briefly. “Why are our lives always so big?”

“Well, you're the best pilot in the whole Republic, our wife is a Jedi, and I kind of started the whole ‘defecting stormtroopers’ thing, so I guess it was probably inevitable,” Finn answered with a soft sigh. Sometimes it got to be a little  _ much _ , maybe. Then he grinned.

“Though in this particular case, I think it was  _ your  _ idea,” he teased.

Poe sighed, deeply. “I know, that’s the worst part.” 

He straightened, though, gamely, and turned around to hunt for where he hid the present. “Okay, I know it’s nothing fancy, but you and Rey still haven’t used up all your coupon books, so I couldn’t do that again, so, here, this one first—” 

Poe shoved a bundle that seemed to be cloth wrapped in paper, and Finn unwrapped a nondescript-looking black vest. 

“Okay, if you don’t like this you don’t have to keep it or wear it and I’ll get you something else, but—this is, ah, one of Han Solo’s vests. The General was going through some old stuff, I guess, and she found it, and was going to get rid of it—I was going to take it for  _ me _ , but it’s kinda big. Anyway, I know Han—meant a lot to you. And I know Leia does. I think she’d like to see you wear it, even if you never wear it again after today…” 

Poe hesitated, watching Finn’s face. “Is it okay?”

Finn's face had already lit up in surprise and—though he'd known the smuggler for only a short while—fondness, as he realized why the vest looked familiar and well-worn.

“What! Yes—thank you!—it's  _ better _ than that!” he laughed, and shrugged into it immediately before trying (and probably failing, he thought) to adopt the sort of casual, suave persona that had seemed so habitual to Han Solo. Except he also tried to pretend he was a little perpetually grouchy, which made him laugh and ruined the entire thing.

“Ha! That’s him, alright!” Poe laughed, squeezing Finn’s shoulder, and admiring the figure he cut in the garment. “You look good, buddy. Mr. Jade-Skywalker. Now you know what I should have done, I should have asked Leia if she had any of Luke’s old ponchos lying around...” 

He added this, teasing, and nosed in for a kiss. “I can’t believe I’m married to  _ actual legends _ . I’m living the dream, you know. I—I can talk to all the reporters in the world if you want me to. I can do anything.” 

Poe looked like he was about to go downstairs and do just that, but Finn noticed he was still holding a smaller wrapped gift.

“Hey, wait up! Let Breha keep her busy,” he said as he reached out for Poe's hand to slow him down before he could open the door.

“Do I get to open that, too?” he asked, motioning to the small gift that Poe still held, embarrassed to look greedy but also reluctant to let Poe run out the door when this was the only peace and quiet they were likely to have until the party was over.

“Oh, right!” Poe chuckled, and thrust the small package in Finn’s face. 

He waited until Finn unwrapped the ignition key to a starfighter, realized what it was, and glared at him before holding up his hands and laughing. “It’s not what it looks like! I mean—it is. It’s for my starfighter.” 

Finn waited, because this explained nothing. 

“For today. If something goes wrong today, I’m not going to go haring off into a dogfight until you want me to. How’s that for a gift?” Poe tried. He had come a long way from the man you couldn’t say the word “grounded” to without starting a fight. Then he made a face, unsure if Finn would think this was lame. “If it’s terrible, I can still get you that self-driving lawnmower you wanted…?”

Finn closed his hand around the key and threw his arms around Poe's neck to hug him.

“Why would you ever think this is terrible?” he asked after giving Poe a kiss and pulling away a short distance to look at him. “It’s perfect.” 

He held the key up to look at it in the palm of his hand, his eyes maybe a little misty. They'd come so far...

Then he held it back out to Poe with a rueful smile. “But if anything goes wrong today, there's no one I trust more than you and Rey to keep us safe. If something happens, don't wait for my okay to handle it.” 

Poe chuckled, jogging Finn with his elbow like this wasn’t his idea in the first place, and pocketed the ignition key. “You’re a sap. You still want that lawn-mower, though, seriously?”

“Hey, now, you came up with it!” Finn laughed, but he couldn't deny that he was also very much a sap. “Ask me again when I have  _ time  _ to use a lawn-mower.”

“God, you’re turning into my father.” Poe teased, and then sighed. Cupping Finn’s cheeks, he pulled him into a kiss and then just stood there, their last few seconds of peace together spent admiring his face. “I love you.”

“I know, and I love you more,” Finn responded, grinning, and pressed his forehead to Poe's before stepping back with a reluctant sigh.

He took Poe's hand, though, before opening the door to the laugh of Suralinda Javos, who had no doubt been told something embarrassing by Breha.

“Leaving those two to their own devices was a horrible idea,” Finn remarked as they came downstairs, only to discover that Breha was gone, and in her place sat Maz Kanata.

“Maz!” Finn shouted, delighted. 

Finn could barely contain his excitement, and seeing Maz was great, but it would have been much better if Admiral Amilyn Holdo were not also there,  _ sitting on the living room couch _ , and laughing along with them. 

Poe wanted to wilt, to go chase down his cousin for leaving him here like this, and flee all at once. But instead he patted Finn on the shoulder and said with a smile that was a little bit plastic, “Honey, why don’t you go check on your mom? I’ll talk to these ladies and join you.” 

“I’ll come with you, Finn,” Maz said, standing up and taking Finn’s hand. “You don’t want a pirate and politicians in the same news feed.” 

“I thought those were the same thing?” Poe joked reflexively, and then wondered who she was talking about.  _ Politicians _ , plural? So he smiled. “Ladies. What can I do for you?” 

Suralinda Javos’ smile was deceptively disarming. “Well, Admiral Holdo thought you and she could give an interview together with the—ah, here he is, now, Senator Antilles.” 

Poe blinked at who  _ now  _ entered his home, swarmed by staff. He knew Republican security had taken over the homestead for the party, and he knew Leia—and Amilyn, apparently—had pulled some strings to get some important people on the guest list—but Poe Dameron was talking to  _ Senator Posco Antilles _ (no relation to Wedge, it was a common name) in his house. Who was letting them all  _ in _ ?

“Uh, Senator?” Poe smiled, a little bewildered, trying to remember if Dad had voted for this guy or not (Poe, much to his chagrin, hadn’t voted in a local election since he’d been off fighting the First Order). “Welcome!” 

Now that Poe thought about it, there was an election coming up, soon, so maybe this was why the Senator was here. That put Poe more at ease: a Senator who was up for re-election trying to get some brownie points by kissing stormtrooper babies or whatever was a known quantity, something he could handle. That was probably Holdo’s angle on all this, too. 

And he was the golden boy pilot (the son of regular heroes, not literal  _ Legends _ ) who was easy to interview and film, who could speak for the Jedi Rey and the Ex-Stormtrooper Finn whom the First Order most feared, but in a way everyone at home could “get.” Yes, Poe understood his role in all this. He could handle this. 

“Admiral Dameron!” the Senator said, shaking his hand warmly for all he was a politician. “I’ve been waiting a long time to meet you, sir.” 

_ Sir _ ? Unexpected. The Senator had struck Poe as a “son” kind of guy...

“The honor is all mine, Senator,” Poe said, and then turned to Javos, his eyes a little pleading, but not enough to show the others. “Ah, Javos, are you really sure you want to interview me next to the superstars?” 

“That’s definitely the point of having you here,” Holdo said, patting the seat next to her. Poe stood there, thinking how just last night he and Finn and Rey had sex on that couch after Dad went to bed, and only barely snapped out of it enough to sit down. 

…

“Where did you say you thought your mother was?” Maz asked as she and Finn searched the party tables for Mara Jade. Finn stood on his toes as if to see better, and frowned briefly down at the Pirate Queen, who was still holding his hand.

“I assumed she'd be helping with the children,” Finn answered, and indeed if she had been of a mind to help supervise their most recently rescued charges, she should have been somewhere along the decorated tables.

But Finn didn't see her. He saw several of the other Jedhans, and he was fairly certain he'd caught a glimpse of Archex hanging some strings of paper ribbon, but he had yet to see his mother.

“Oh, hi, Colonel! Ms. Kanata,” Deeks greeted them as they stood searching, and Finn saw that the young man was festooned with a sparkly garland, one child on his shoulders and another clinging to his leg. “If you're looking for your mom, she's over there under that table.”

Finn and Maz exchanged a look—Finn’s more concerned than Maz’s.

“Some of the kids wanted a fort, so she's helping them build one. I think some of them prefer the quiet to all of this,” he added, gesturing around at everything, “And your mom is very good at making forts.” 

Finn smiled at him in understanding. His mother, too, seemed more at ease in the quiet than the chaos.

Finn and Maz found his mother in the table fort, with several quiet, hollow-eyed children—and Sam, who was babbling brightly, and not exactly respecting the sanctity of the fort or the seriousness of the situation (in this he was rather more like his Papa). 

“Now, Sammy, quiet down, my son,” she said, wrangling the wriggling child. 

“Story, Abba!” he said, patting her face with his hand. “Daddy! Storyyyy!”

“A...story?” Finn asked as the children eyed him a little warily before returning their gazes, owl-like, to Mara Jade.

Maz, who connected well with little Sam, opened her arms to him, though now he was nearly as big as she was. Mara Jade let him clamber out of her lap and into Maz’s, where he continued babbling nonsense in his excitement.

“Hush, now, Samito, we are going to hear a story now, shhhh,” Finn said, holding a finger up to his lips to remind him, while Maz held him. 

“Shh,” Maz said, and Sam looked at her very solemnly before holding his mechno-hand up to his mouth and imitating Finn with a clumsy “Shh,” in agreement.

“Yes, well, how’s this one for a story?” Mara began, laying her hands out, palms up—it was either a welcoming gesture without being demanding, or a meditative one. One of the children huddled up close to her and Finn smiled.

“Once upon a time, there was a young prince and a young princess, both of them fighting in a war, on opposite sides. Both of them thought their whole lives that they were on the right side, because it was what they were taught as children. The prince was also taught to love others, and help others. The princess was taught to help others through order, but her guardians left out the ‘love’ part.” 

The children nodded solemnly. Finn suspected immediately that this was Mara’s story, or a version of it, but one the young stormtroopers could relate to.  _ Finn  _ felt he could relate, though the First Order felt so far away now that he almost forgot, sometimes, what it was like to be his old self in that other world. Even Sam, who had never known a stormtrooper’s existence, had gone still, though he snuggled close to Maz as though for comfort. 

“One day the prince and princess met each other in battle, and they fought. The princess was stronger, but the prince showed her love, which she had never felt before. She realized she had been under a spell for a long time, and his love for broke the spell. Her guardians tried to force her to return to their side, to bring Order to the land, but once she knew love, she couldn’t ever lose it or forget it. She and the prince fought on the same side, then, spreading love to the galaxy.” 

Mara’s eyes had gotten a faraway look in them, but now she refocused on the handful of children in the fort. They stared back, wide-eyed, and everyone was silent—even Sam. 

“They are still fighting to spread love through the galaxy. And the fight for love to rule the galaxy still goes on in each of you.”

“Me?” asked a little girl with enormous blue eyes, who seemed to have forgotten in her excitement that she was too nervous to speak. Another child crawled into Mara’s lap. 

“Yes, you. As long as there is love for others and love for yourself in your heart, you will always be on the right side of that fight. And you will always win.”

“But—but whabbout the bad people?” asked the child in Mara’s lap. “I don’t love them.” 

Mara Jade looked down at her and hummed thoughtfully. 

“We do the best we can—sometimes by giving them the chance to be good people,” Finn supplied, and the children all whirled to look at him as if they’d forgotten he was here. It was possible, even, that they had. 

Maz smiled at him and nodded, proudly. 

But Mara certainly hadn’t forgotten him, for she nodded solemnly to this statement. “That’s right. And if they try to hurt anyone we love, we stop them.”

“You got that right,” Maz added with a chuckle. 


	4. Chapter 4

“Joining us also is Rear Admiral Poe Dameron of the Republic Navy,” Javos said, smiling a little too brightly. 

Her droid was recording, and Poe tried not to think about how many people were watching, when this was kind of a sensitive time, and a sensitive game they were playing. It could look really bad  _ really  _ easily, but Poe gave a little wave at the camera before deciding that looked stupid and putting his hands on his knees. 

“The festivities are being held here on his family’s farm, the home of Kes Dameron and the late Shara Bey, who fought in the Rebellion, isn’t that right?” 

“Yes, ma’am,” Poe said. “You should be interviewing dad, he’s the real hero.” 

“Now, you know that’s not true,” Holdo said, touching his arm, companionably, in sight of the camera. “But today’s event was your idea, wasn’t it?” 

“Right,” Poe said, knowing that this was his opportunity to explain to the galaxy what today meant—and to get a message to the First Order, too—so he had a speech more or less prepared. “Me and my spouses, yes. It’s Finn’s Lifeday, and our son’s, too. The Republic, and the Resistance before them, liberated a number of stormtroopers from the First Order, and what with the new SRTF programs and reintegrating them into Republican society, we thought it would be nice to declare a galactic holiday in honor of what they went through. It’s thanks to the support of our Senators, of course, that it’s become intergalactic, and it’s nice to have the media coverage, of course…” 

Poe waved a hand at Senator Antilles and at Javos, putting on his best dashing smile. “We think it’s a good step forward for healing the galaxy.” 

“Aren’t you afraid that the First Order will show up here?” This was Investigative Reporter Suralinda Javos, now, but Poe didn’t flinch. 

“Of course. We’re always afraid that this terrorist organization will show up at any large and peaceful gathering. They hit the Hosnian System without warning. Any of us are  _ always  _ in danger until they are stopped.” 

“Now, Rear Admiral—” Antilles began nervously, but Poe interrupted him as politely as possible. 

“We are of course, well protected here, so near the New Republic’s Naval Base. Between my wife and my husband and General Organa, we’ve got enough Force Users to be both a tempting and a formidable target for the First Order.” 

“ _ Poe _ ...” Holdo this time. They should have known this before sticking him in front of a camera. 

“Do you have a message for the First Order, if they’re watching?” Javos asked. 

Poe turned his winningest smile on the camera. “Of course not. We don’t negotiate with terrorists.” 

Which, of course,  _ was  _ a message, but this answer relieved Holdo and Antilles, and the short interview continued with the questions directed at the two Senators. 

“Senator Holdo, will you be running for re-election?” 

“I will be,” Holdo said, looking both demure and smug. “And that’s why I’ll be giving up the Admiralty, because it’s important that we separate the military and governing bodies of the New Republic, now that we have such capable young officers.” 

She squeezed Poe’s arm again, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Holdo was leaving the Republic Navy to do politics full-time? Did that mean  _ he  _ was up for another promotion? Gods, did he even  _ want  _ another promotion? 

Javos redirected her attention: “Senator Antilles, you’re up for re-election this cycle, too, aren’t you?” 

“Actually, I’ve hit my term limit,” the Senator said, to Poe’s surprise, and to Poe’s even  _ greater  _ surprise, he squeezed his shoulder tightly. “Maybe we should convince Dameron here to run, eh?” 

Poe laughed along with them, worried that they were laughing at how badly he’d just messed up this interview, and even more worried that this was one of those testing-the-waters jokes that hid real intent beneath it. 

…

Finn and his mother eventually extricated themselves from the children’s fort with Sam, leaving them once they seemed comfortable enough to keep each other company. Maz decided to stay a little longer with them, telling them her own stories of her Pirate Queen days, no doubt. 

In the time they'd spent telling stories, Breha had successfully wrangled Luka, Flash, and Zero  into decorating tables instead of each other, and they had moved on to the Force tree. From its branches hung an assortment of ribbons, and multiple children appeared to have climbed up to place even more, shrieking in delight when the breeze caused the branches to sway gently. Luka and Breha kept a watchful eye, but seemed to have decided trying to keep the children on the ground was futile.

When Mara and Finn came to stand with them, Zero and Flash watched them warily, as if they thought they might be in trouble, maybe, for desecrating a sacred tree, or letting the children climb up into it, and glanced up into the branches.

“Relax. This tree took care of my cousin at his stupidest. They'll be fine,” Breha said. 

Finn laughed—but he also believed her. He’d heard, several times, about the time a teenage Poe crashed some kind of vehicle into the Tree, and it was fine and he was fine. “Where did Rey go?” 

“She said she was going back to the barnfor something,” Mara said. “Maybe I’ll go see where she is.” 

“Hey, Mara, don’t go,” Poe said brightly, jogging up, though she disappeared as though she hadn’t heard him. He tried to brush this off as normal, still not sure how to deal with his new mother-in-law yet. “Aren’t we starting soon?” 

“Yes! You’re due by the picnic tables to read some stories,” Kes said, also joining them and ushering them off. Javos followed him with her camera droid. “And Finn, those kids aren’t going to get pony rides by themselves! Where’s Chewie and the petting zoo?”

The dignitaries were led to a giant Pavillion pitched over Kes’ field of wildflowers (grazed short by a local nerf herd), where a sort of schmoozy affair was happening: Leia was overseeing it, along with Lando and his wife Tendra. Another handsome older man joined them, whom Poe and Finn recognized from briefings as Sinjir Rath Velus—an Imperial defector, so a good invitee to the present gathering. Judging by the man with an arm around him, he had brought his husband. The adult stormtroopers were gathered here, too, though some, intimidated by or uninterested in interacting with Republic leaders, had found their way to the events planned for the kids. 

Poe, for one, decided to look busy before he had to go get involved in that (even though he hoped Lando would introduce him to Sinjir). Dealing with what felt like a thousand kids—all spread out in different areas around the farm: some waiting for pony rides, some waiting for story time, some playing games and some eating—seemed much easier and way more fun. He saw Sevens and Timons standing together looking awkward, and invited them to come with him. “You can help or watch me make a fool of myself.” 

“We were just saying we wish Jess were here,” Sevens said with a smile, downing their drink gamely so they could help. “She’d be excited by all the kids, and Time would have someone to be excited with.” 

Poe nodded and smiled, clapping Sevens on the shoulder. “Yeah, tell me about it. But she’s where we need her most right now, I promise.”

The relative quiet was broken by the excited arrival of Deeks.

“Time, they've made  _ hats.  _ The children made hats and  _ they made me one _ ,” Deeks said, indicating with a grin what appeared to be a crown of some kind, lovingly wound with ribbon and perched atop his hair.

Though his overt enthusiasm still seemed to overwhelm her in general, Timons gave Deeks a small smile.

“Well, it  _ is  _ your Life Day,” Timons told him.

“ _ And  _ yours, and Sevens’! You need hats!” he told her, and waved with his hand for both of them to follow him. 

Sevens turned back to Poe. “And where were you going, Admiral?” 

“Story time,” Poe said earnestly. “I do an  _ excellent  _ Luke Skywalker impression.”

...

Finn found Rey already by the cart rides, where the horses Baze and Chirrut were munching hay and being pet by a gaggle of young ex-stormtroopers. 

“Ah, there you are!” Rey said, ignoring Sam’s screech as he was squished between them while they kissed. 

“Everything alright? Poe is telling stories with Maz and Deeks took Sevens and Time to get party hats, which we'll need photo evidence of for Jess,” he told her. 

Sam, wanting to contribute to the conversation with names he recognized, announcing earnestly: “Time here!” 

“Yeah, maybe she'll give you some cake, huh?” Rey asked, tickling Sam's neck. 

“Tate!” Sam repeated an approximation. 

Rey beamed and kissed Finn. “Happy birthday. You know you're getting your present from me later, right?”

“Are  _ you _ my birthday present?” Finn asked innocently, “Because I’m just suggesting you would be the  _ best _ birthday present.”

Rey laughed, rolling her eyes at the overly angelic smile on his face. Finn couldn't hold it together, and he, too, laughed.

“Did you want us to take over?” Finn asked, finally looking at the horses. Chirrut had apparently decided standing was overrated, and was now laying on the ground and being crawled over by no less than three children.

Finn entertained brief thoughts of telling the children to stop crowding him, but with a great sigh, Chirrut rolled over to his side and stretched out as if to nap, somehow carefully avoiding any small children. 

“Maybe, ah, they don’t need a cart ride just yet,” Rey laughed, patting Baze’s neck. “I think they’re on strike.” 

Sam screeched again. “Tate!” 

“Okay,” Rey said in response to that. “You get him fed. I’ll be here waiting.” 

They walked back past the storytime corner, where Poe was busy giving a quite good impression of Luke Skywalker and Yoda—at least, the version from the  _ Luke Skywalker Adventures _ —

“‘Master, moving stones around is one thing, but this is... totally different!’ Luke complained. But Yoda replied, stamping his stick, ‘No! No different! Only different in your mind. You must unlearn what you have learned. Size matters not!’”

—and over to the cake. 

“I thought you were going to help with the horses,” Sevens accused when they joined them. Finn glanced surreptitiously around for Deeks, half-expecting to be ambushed with an outrageous hat at any moment. He didn't  _ see _ him, and he didn't hear him, either.

“I was, but then Sam was hungry and fussy and the horses were napping anyway, so now I'm feeding Sam,” he answered, finally.

Sam yelled and reached for the cake on the table.

“Nice hat, by the way,” Finn added when Sevens have him a dubious look with raised eyebrows.

“Are you sure cake counts as food?” Sevens asked, ignoring both the comment and the hat, which Deeks had insisted they wear. 

It was made of balloons and paper, and far too gaudy to be anything but horrifying. Jess, as a result, would probably be delighted.

And this was why—and how—Suralinda Javos and her image-capturing droid knew to arrive. 

“That’s a great look, Sevens. Where’s Finn’s? Can I get some pictures of you guys?” 

“Uh, what? I don't have a hat,” Finn said.

Judging from the look Sevens gave him, it wasn't going to last for long…

“Wait here,” they said, and practically bolted, only to return several moments later with Deeks in tow, chattering merrily as Sevens steered him away from crashing into anything. 

His focus was entirely on a hat he was finishing that was every bit as loud as Sevens’, and which he deposited this on Finn's head with a laugh. Sam, too, received one, but his was a much sturdier crown of paper flowers and spirals that bounced when the crown moved. For the occasion, they were all bright, neon colors, and he immediately made a grab at a spiral that hung in his face.

“Okay,  _ now _ you can take a picture,” Sevens said, sounding very pleased with themselves. They even edged in, once Javos waved them over, to take a picture with Deeks, Finn, and Sam.

“You’re adorable,” Suralinda laughed, after arranging them and taking a few more candid shots. They had long since stopped worrying about getting Sam’s picture in the  _ Galaxy Beacon _ and other holonews outlets since they realized that since he looked exactly like Finn, there wasn’t much hope of him not being a celebrity, anyway. 

“I’ll send these out right away,” she said, going back to her droid so that the galaxy would have nearly-live coverage of the event. 

Of course, it meant the First Order would, too, and it still sat uneasily with Finn. He looked around the Dameron family homestead, heart swelling with pride and love. He’d do anything for this place, and these people. His home. 


	5. Chapter 5

Presently, all the guests had arrived, and people filtered in gradually to sit in the chairs arranged in front of a small podium. Rey, Finn, Poe, and Sam had seats on the stage, and the ex-stormtroopers were seated in the rows nearest the stage, scattered among family and friends who were also attending.

The children they had rescued were sitting on the ground in front of the seats, where their elders, or, in some cases, parents, could keep a watchful eye lest they become bored and disruptive. It also meant they were in most of the holoprojections, within sight of the entire galaxy.

The speeches weren't supposed to be long, since this was a birthday party merely disguised as a diplomatic event. One hour, they had all said, and no more. There were too many children here, and the fact that they wouldn't act up and fuss after that time said more about their being from the First Order than it did about them being able to handle such an event. 

So after Poe had sat down after giving his brief welcome and wishing happy birthday to his son and husband (two minutes, he had said, but in practice actually went on for over five, which Kes would have to remember to tease him about later), and when Admiral Holdo started her speech, Kes Dameron knew he had more than a few minutes to just...wander.

Later, he'd like to say he had a hunch that something was up: his old pathfinder instincts warning him of danger. Later, Rey and Finn and Mara—Mara Jade, whom he hadn't seen in  _ years _ , and never even really talked to until it turned out she was his son's mother-in-law—would all say it was the Force directing him. Kes knew for a fact his back was killing him, and he needed to walk it off. Down to the shed and back would do the trick, and he could check on the shield generator while he was here. 

Someone else was in the shed with him, he realized very quickly, and was about to call out before he noticed the sounds of someone trying to be quiet. A kid, hiding, maybe, he thought at first, and then startled when he recognized Oren, one of the ex-stormtroopers who worked the farm with them. He was a good kid. 

If Kes thought for a second that anything nefarious was going on, he might not have just called out, “Hey, Oren, you doing okay? The party’s out by the tree, you know.” 

Oren stood up straight, like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar, and looked at Kes with wide eyes. Kes barely had time to realize what it looked like he was doing to the shield generator— _ shutting it down _ —before the stormtrooper raised a blaster and shot him. 

… 

“Mayday, mayday,” came suddenly through everyone’s comlinks on the emergency channel, but Poe was the one who stood up, right where he was on stage. 

He  _ expected  _ to get a “contacts alert” at any point, and was mentally prepared to not act like a ninny in front of a crowd of people, but what he expected was a warning to come from Connix or someone in the Command Center, not a “mayday” from _ his father _ . 

“Dad?” Poe said, eyes flashing to Finn, who was holding Sam, and Rey, who was holding Finn’s hand, and he stalked offstage to hiss into his comlink. “Dad, what’s—”

“Shield generator. I’ve been shot.” He cursed in Yavinese. “Oren. Stormtrooper. I—I think we’re under attack.” 

Poe was already running across the farm. “Dad? Dad, I’ll be right there!”

They had been expecting this, and in the surprised murmuring that followed Poe's hasty exit, Holdo outstretched her arms.

“Everyone, there’s nothing to worry about. As a safety precaution, we’re going to cut the speeches short. If you could calmly follow these officers here,” she said, nodding to Torch and Coni, who started directing people to safety. 

Finn, still holding Sam, remained on stage, where he could watch his other soldiers separating out from the crowd and directing traffic, as well as keep an eye out for any further subversives. Over his comlink, he listened for Kes or Poe and tried not to grind his teeth. One of the ex-stormtroopers, someone they had  _ trusted _ , who Kes had opened his home to, had  _ shot _ Kes. 

Worse, that meant that the First Order had people on the inside. 

Right on cue, the next voice that interrupted all frequencies of comlinks was Connix’s voice: “Contact! We have contact, multiple bogeys!” 

“Why is the Shield Generator’s power dropping?!” 

“Rey, why don’t you follow Poe, check out that generator?” Leia said, and leapt to action. 

Holdo, too, turned to give orders to her comlink: the fleet was brought out from behind Yavin III and fighters were scrambled. She disappeared surreptitiously and Leia took over. Civilians and children were kept calm. Drinks flowed. Conversation started up again, led by Lando Calrissian, no less. 

Someone, in all of this, cut into a cake. 

“We’re going to be alright down here,” Leia was saying, “unless the First Order brought a—” 

“Oh, shit, it’s the  _ Supremacy _ !  _ And  _ they’ve got a new dreadnought!” 

“One of those.” Leia sounded more annoyed than worried.

Finn exchanged a look across the crowd with Sevens, who was wearing an expression of baffled concern. Their girlfriend was up there, after all. 

“ _ Two _ ?” they mouthed at him. 

Finn shrugged one shoulder, adjusting Sam on his hip. They could do nothing about it here—especially not since, if they had two dreadnought-class starships in orbit, the shield generator wasn’t going to do much to protect them. All they could do was ensure that the crowd of civilians, now gathered in one of the old buildings that had belonged to the nearby complex of Jedi temples, remained calm.

So far, the civilians appeared not to be aware that the situation above the planet had just become more dire than anyone had anticipated.

...

For once in his life, Poe was  _ not  _ rushing to get into a cockpit. He wasn’t supposed to, of course—he was supposed to be leading from the surface, with Admiral Holdo, and trusting to his officers in the  _ Vapor _ , the  _ Helldiver _ , and the Republic capital ships—but that hadn’t stopped him before. This time wasn’t about following orders. 

“Dad!” Poe shouted, bursting into the shed with the shield generator to find the body of Oren, the former stormtrooper and former hired hand on the Dameron farm, dead and still smoking.

“Dad?” Poe looked around. 

A cough alerted Poe to look behind a control panel of the shield generator. “Back here, son.” 

Poe was at his father’s side in an instant, the father who was trying to fix the shield generator while bleeding from the shoulder. 

“Dad!” Poe screamed again. 

“Yeah, I heard you the first time,” Kes snapped, as Poe eased him away from the shield generator. 

“You’re hit. How bad?” Poe asked, rattled more than he cared to admit. He knew his dad had been in hairier situations younger than he was now (though that was a long time ago now), and the blaster wound seemed like just a flesh wound (though it was bleeding a lot), but Poe still didn’t like seeing the war come so close to home. “Stop it, Pop, we’ll take care of it, let me patch you up!” 

When Kes still paid him no heed, Poe practically stamped his foot: “Papa!”

...

Back in the temple, Finn surreptitiously wandered over toward Torch and tapped him on the shoulder.

“We need all of the soldiers to stay calm, no matter what they hear over the comms, until they're told to do otherwise,” he said softly. 

Torch nodded grimly. “Roger that, sir. This and the other seven times you’ve said it.” 

Finn gave him a crooked smile, and jabbed a finger at him. “And warn the ex-stormtroopers especially. None of them except Sevens are very good actors.”

Torch snorted softly, but he wiped the severe frown off his face and at least managed to look carefully neutral. He even tickled Sam’s chin, who told him, “NO!” and turned to press his other cheek to Finn’s shoulder. 

Finn shrugged a little helplessly. 

...

Rey rushed after Poe, the weight of the Force, dark sides and light, pressing on her. This was big. Everything around her was big, the air pregnant with—ha—with conflict. This was an important moment to the Force, like all of it was gathered around this one planet. That was absurd, of course, but it still felt that way. 

She slammed through the door with a yell. “Poe!  _ Kes _ !” 

“I’ve got him,” Poe said. 

“The shield generator,” Kes hissed, swatting at Poe and swearing as he applied the medpack. “Oren was—”

Rey stared down at the dead stormtrooper. Another one who couldn’t get away from the First Order.  _ May the Force be with you _ , she thought at him, sadly.

Then immediately she turned her focus on the machinery. She was good at machinery. It made the bigger problems seem smaller. Luckily, this was sabotaged by someone who didn’t know much about shield generators, so Rey could bypass the damaged system easier than she usually did on the  _ Millenium Falcon _ . 

Their comlinks were still screaming at them, but the only one listening was Kes. 

_ “Looks like they brought the whole fleet, alright.”  _

_ “Squadrons, form up!”  _

_ “What’re we gonna do against that thing?”  _

_ “Whatever we have to.”  _

_ “I can’t believe this, my partner’s down there eating cake and I’m up here getting shot at _ — _ whoa _ — _!”  _

_ “Cut the chatter! Watch your eight, Red-nine!”  _

_ “I need some help!”  _

_ “Shield generator’s back up, thank gods.”  _

_ “I’m hit!”  _

_ “They’re charging weapons. Admiral Holdo, they are charging weapons, please advise.”  _

Kes grunted and sat up, pushing Poe away from him. “Poe. Rey. You’ve got to get in there.”

“Dad, the entire fleet is up there. They’ve got this under control.” 

“Not if they’ve got a force-damned air-to-ground—” 

“Dad! The shield generator is up again. We’re safe here—”

Kes grabbed them both by the arms. “They have a  _ dreadnought _ , haven’t you been listening? Our only line of defense is  _ above  _ atmosphere right now. We’re not safe until you both get where you belong.”

“One fighter won’t make a difference, Dad. I need to be in the Command Center is where I should be,” Poe said, determined to be a proper Admiral for once. Then he looked to Rey. “...But if you’re going up there…?”  

“It’s where I need to be.” Rey stood up. The  _ Falcon  _ was primed and ready to go. Rey wanted to go. She felt she needed to go. She narrowed her eyes and looked at Poe. “It’s where you need to be, too. I could use your help.” 

She touched his wrist, making his tattoo with her name on it tingle. 

“I—” Poe began. “You know I’m supposed to stay down here. Finn may need—” 

Kes rolled his eyes and waited. Now he was just making excuses: Finn would be fine, unless the whole planet blew up, but then they'd kind of have bigger problems. 

“Well,  _ I’m  _ going up,” Rey said. “I’ll need a copilot.” 

Poe winked at her, going to the back of the shed and pulling a tarp down off of something vaguely starfighter-shaped. “Good luck finding one. I’ve got my own ride…”


	6. Chapter 6

“Hey, boss…I think we're about to have some restless civilians,” Torch said over his private comm channel with Finn.

At first Finn didn't understand what he was saying—while the atmosphere had taken on a slightly nervous undercurrent, the civilians were overall making the best of it. They ate cake, entertained the children, and talked among themselves. And if the conversation and occasional laughter were a bit forced, Finn at least had to give them credit for not panicking. Probably people like Lando and Sinjir and their partners were to be thanked for that.

A shout from across the room drew his attention, however, and he pushed through the crowd to find three of his soldiers—former stormtroopers—facing off against at least five civilians. They were all shouting, and the only thing keeping them apart were Sevens and Coni.

Coni was trying to cajole the civilians into calming down, while Sevens had apparently resorted to threats to get the soldiers to back off.

“THAT'S ENOUGH!” Finn shouted over all of them.

To his credit, the argument abruptly stopped. When a man in an officer’s uniform holding a baby yelled at you, people tended to stop what they were doing.

“What’s going on here,” Finn demanded of Sevens and Coni, silencing the other soldiers and civilians when they clamored to speak over each other. “This is supposed to be a celebration.”

“They said they caught TK sneaking around,” Coni answered, nodding to the civilians. “They're demanding he be taken off duty until the First Order has ceased its attacks.”

For his part, TK stood perfectly still, apparently trying to avoid being noticed.

“They heard about what happened to Sergeant Dameron…” Coni added, quieter, like she would have preferred to keep this back.

Finn sighed deeply. Why were they doing this _now_? He turned to the civilians, who were still muttering angrily.

“While I appreciate your concern, I would prefer you come to me rather than trying to handle something like this yourselves. A birthday party is no place for vigilanteism,” he scolded, and then turned to his soldiers.

He offered Sevens and Coni each a smile of thanks, and dismissed both of them, as well as the two soldiers who had been defending TK—after reassuring them that no one was in trouble.

He left TK until last, and when he turned to him, the other man was still standing very still and eyeing him with concern.

“I'd rather give them no reason to continue watching you, so I'm assigning you to stay near me,” he told him.

“Sir,” TK said in acknowledgement.

…

Rey pushed her way through the jungle to the landing pad between the Dameron farm and the base. Soldiers were going back and forth, and fighters flew overhead, but no one saw Rey going to where the _Millenium Falcon_ was docked, half-hidden by trees. It would have been a target, except for the force field protecting the entire planet.

But Rey was not the first person to board the _Falcon_ today.

She half-expected to see Chewie as she closed the gangway behind her and strode into the cockpit. R2 and 3PO greeted her with a rude series of bleeps and a “Oh, Mistress Rey, won’t you talk some sense into her?” respectively.

“ _Her_?” Rey said.

Sitting in the copilot’s seat was Leia.

“I know, I’m supposed to be in the Command Center. But if you’re going after my—if you’re going after Kylo Ren, then I’m coming with you.”

Rey sat down heavily. “That wasn’t...the plan. _Exactly_.” She peered out the canopy, looking far away at nothing. “But we need to be...there.”

“I agree.” Leia patted the console. “I remember how to copilot, so don’t worry about me.”

“Then prime the ignition. Let’s go.”

…

“Have you seen General Organa?” Lando asked, handing Finn a glass of punch, and tickling Sam's chin where he sat in his other arm. “She’s supposed to have the Conn with Admiral Holdo.”

They could see bright streaks of light indicating the fighting above them, the occasional flash that meant a ship or blast ricocheted off the shield that was protecting the planet.

Finn might have been about to answer when the _Millennium Falcon_ screamed past overhead and blipped through the force field and out into the battle.

Lando whooped, pumping his fist after his beloved (first love) ship. Then he coughed, and neither of them spoke for a moment.

“Alright, well, how about Commander Dameron?”

There was another streak in the sky, this one too fast to see clearly, though it looked like a starfighter of some kind, black and orange.

Finn merely shrugged, switching Sam to his other arm.

Lando Calrissian laughed, eyes crinkling with laugh lines. “Looks like you’re in charge down here, Colonel. Enjoy the party. I’ll let Holdo know that everyone is where they need to be.”

…

With both Rey and Poe up in the sky, Finn had little to do but keep an eye on the civilians and soldiers he'd been left in charge of, and worry.

It was nerve-wracking, since he could still _hear_ everything that was broadcast to the Republic-wide channel, as well as over the pilots’ channel.

They were holding their own, for now, but only by a narrow margin, and the two dreadnoughts —well, only because the _Supremacy_ was technically a class of star-dreadnought—had not yet been brought to bear.

And he was here, on the ground, listening to the fight carrying on above them, drinking punch and trying to pretend nothing was wrong because it would scare Sam. He was practically babysitting, although that was hardly the fault of TK, who had only—

He had wandered off somewhere, Finn realized as he looked around for the other man.

 _Wonderful_.

…

“I’ve got your six, honey,” Poe said, keeping behind the _Millenium Falcon_ as they broke atmo.

“Copy that. I think we’ll be okay,” Leia replied, “Though I don’t appreciate being called ‘honey’ by my nephew-in-law.”

“Ouch, I’ve been downgraded from ‘surrogate son’!” Poe laughed. “Also, aren’t you supposed to be back—”

“...And where are _you_ supposed to be?” she replied smoothly. They both knew the other only had one place, and that was in the thick of it.

“I,” Poe replied, self-righteously, “am in a civilian starfighter, not a Republic ship, so they can’t get mad at me.”

[We’re in an _antique_ ] BB-8 complained. [This hunk of junk wasn’t designed with BB-units in mind!]

“Hey, watch how you talk about mom’s old fighter,” Poe said.

He had, with Rey’s help, given the ancient A-wing a new coat of paint, replacing the green with orange, as well as upgraded all her systems, and now she flew like a brand new TIE-fighter, or at least as zippy.

[I can barely _move_ in this thing!]

“Well maybe if you didn’t get so many upgrades,” Poe shot back.

[Are you calling me _fat_?]

“Rotund! That’s accurate!” Poe opened a fleet-wide channel. “Republic fleet, this is Rear Admiral Dameron.”

“Poe, what the hell are you doing here?” Snap—Commander Wexley—demanded. “We’ve kinda got our hands full up here. Orders?”

“Stay alive,” Poe said, as they slowly caught up to the furball. He found he desperately wanted to join in against the waves of TIE fighters that were pouring out of the patched-up _Supremacy_ and another huge dreadnought, but he knew the fight would be on him as soon as anyone from the First Order spotted the _Falcon_ , so he hung back. “And protect the planet.”

…

And now TK had wandered off, and Finn couldn't find him. It was like the man was being intentionally hard to find, which was more than a little annoying. The young man was going to get himself shot by a trigger-happy, paranoid civilian. 

Finn didn't have the time _or_ patience for this.

He commed Torch, Sevens, Coni, and Reist, and asked them to keep an eye out for the wayward ex-trooper.

“Should we be concerned, boss?” Reist asked, and Finn sighed.

“I doubt—wait, I think I see him over by the cake,” he said. There was a brief moment of quiet.

“You sure? I don't see him,” Reist replied.

Finn was about to reply when he was interrupted by Sevens, whose shout carried over the entire room.

_“Everybody down!”_

…

“Except they’re charging weapons to _fire_ on the planet, Poe. You want us to just fly in front of it?”

“They’ve got some kind of Death Star technology, Admiral,” said Vice Admiral D’Acy, from where she commanded the _Vapor_. “So that wouldn’t work, anyway. We’re giving it everything we’ve got, but we can’t penetrate their shields.”

“One minute to full charge,” said a tech on the bridge of the _Helldiver_. “And the planet’s shields won’t hold for long against firepower of that magnitude.”

Poe felt his stomach drop. _This_ was that worst-case scenario they couldn’t have prepared for, and Finn and Sam and his dad were still on the planet, along with half the dignitaries in the Republic.

But he had a plan. Half of one, anyway.

“Rey, I’m gonna need you to fly straight at the _Supremacy_.”


	7. Chapter 7

“Everybody down!” 

“He’s got a gun!” 

People screamed, and some people threw themselves to the ground. Some people drew their weapons. Some of them just stood there.

Finn whirled around, protecting Sam in his arms but instinctively searching out the danger, blaster drawn. 

He only barely missed having his head taken off, and could only flinch back as the stormtrooper TK succeeded in catching him across the shoulder with a blaster bolt. Finn fired.

Several other people returned fire before Finn even registered that his shoulder hurt, and had to drop his blaster to support Sam. 

TK was dead before he even hit the ground, leaving Finn baffled and saddened. TK had tried to assassinate him? But the Republic had taken him in and he'd had friends among the other soldiers, and he'd been planning on _ betraying _ them the whole time? Just like Oren, who shot Kes. 

_ How many traitors were there?  _ came a dangerous thought, as Finn looked at his child—his clone—in his arms, to check that Sam wasn’t hurt. In spite of everything they had done to try to keep him safe, to make sure he would grow up safe and normal… 

It made Finn furious. 

“Finn!” Torch yelled, his tone that of someone who had been ignored several times, and Finn winced, stepping back. Torch put a hand on his shoulder—the one that hadn't been shot—and Finn blinked. Sam, startled out of stunned silence by the shout, started wailing.

As if similarly snapped out of their silent shock, the civilians started clamoring for answers, for reassurance that they were safe, for action, in concern for and  _ about  _ the rest of the ex-stormtroopers.

Someone was trying to look at Finn’s shoulder and someone else was trying to take Sam and everyone was looking to him for answers. He raised his hand to hold Sam closer and cover the ear he didn't have pressed against his chest, and then shouted.

“ _ ENOUGH!” _ he barked, for the second time in what felt like a pathetically small amount of time, and waited for quiet. “Folks, we’ve got the situation under control, we just—”

And then everyone who had a weapon drew it and started pointing them at all the ex-stormtroopers. 

…

“What?!” Leia cried, as Rey followed Poe’s instruction. 

“Make sure they know the  _ Millenium Falcon _ is out here. Get it to...to chase you, and try to put the  _ Supremacy  _ between the planet and the other dreadnought. I’ll be with you and help as much as I can!” 

They had seconds before a swarm of TIEs descended on them. 

“Poe, you can’t take on that many TIEs with those sh—” 

“Bee, I need a private channel to Rose Tico,” Poe said, switching over his comms.

“Poe!” Rey snarled, and hit the console when R2 informed her he cut the channel on his end. 

“He’ll be fine, Rey,” Leia said. “Or he won’t, and then you’ll be right.” 

Rey made a face. “Really? That’s your marriage advice.” 

“As long as we are flying at a star destroyer in this hunk of junk, the bar for dangerous stunts is rather low,” Leia pointed out. “Now what do you need me to...do…?”

Leia paused, eyes questioning, at Rey. Rey was looking over her shoulder and stared down the corridor, eyes wide, as though a monster had suddenly emerged from it. “Rey?”

Rey stared, forgetting to pilot as blaster shots ricocheted off their shields. “ _ He’s _ here.” 

Kylo Ren stood there, though whether he was projecting himself or they were still connected through some other force, Rey couldn’t tell. Why was he still haunting her?  _ Finn  _ was his cousin! Not that she wished this apparition on her husband, but…

“I’m glad you’re off the planet,” Kylo said. “It’s not going to go well down there once we finish charging weapons.” 

Rey’s heart clenched, imagining the power of that dreadnought against Yavin IV’s shields, and she turned back around to the controls, swooping the  _ Falcon  _ in front of Kylo and Snoke’s starship, the one ship the First Order wouldn’t sacrifice to shoot the planet below, and swooped taunting in front of its nose. “ _ Fuck you _ .”

“Is that…?” 

Leia, who could see none of this but could feel  _ something _ , quickly put two and two together.  _ Had Rey said they could physically touch while connected like this? _ she wondered, and laid her hand on Rey’s shoulder. 

At that, Kylo Ren appeared before Leia, and she to him, presumably, since his face paled and twisted at the sight of her. 

He opened his mouth as if to speak, but without hesitating, or even really planning what she was about to do, Leia raised her blaster and fired. 

“Augh!” Kylo Ren shouted, clutching his chest. 

Rey wheeled around, but Ren had disappeared again. “What the—? You saw him, too? Did you  _ hit  _ him?” 

“They’re going to chase us now,” Leia said calmly, wishing that shooting her own son had been harder for her to do, emotionally. “Let’s focus on flying.” 

…

“Connix, what am I looking at,” Poe said, grunting as he jinked and spun to shoot as many TIEs as he could before they got to the  _ Falcon _ . The A-wing was zippy and easy to maneuver, though, like the TIE-fighters, its shields were weak, and its firepower puny, as well.  _ I want my X-wing back _ , he thought.  _ Sorry, mom _ . 

The good news was, the  _ Supremacy  _ looked like it was moving in the right direction, goaded by Rey’s taunting—though maybe not fast enough. 

“Oh,  _ hello _ , Rear Admiral. Maybe if you were in the Conn like you were supposed to be, you could see for yourself.”

“Kaydel, please,” Poe begged. “We’ve got about thirty seconds until those weapons charge to start firing on the planet and the only idea I have is to try to get something big in between them and their target.”

“Like your head?” 

“I deserved that, but let’s focus.” 

“We’ve got the larger force, but they have two very dangerous ships, and half the Republican government is on our planet, so we might want to talk about negotiating—”

“Connix.” 

“What? They made you Admiral for a reason. Our capital ship’s bombardment on their weapons systems will be through their shields in seven minutes, but that’s about four minutes longer than it will take them to cut through our shields down here. Do you have any better ideas to buy us three—”

There was suddenly a squawk on the other line, and then what sounded like a shot, and Admiral Holdo snapping: “What’s going on, here?” before Poe’s connection was lost. 

…

Finn found himself among an alarming number of people with blasters pointed at each other. Even Torch, who was generally level-headed unless explosives were involved, had his weapon out and aimed at one of the newer recruits. Coni and Sevens, for some nonsensical reason, had their weapons aimed  _ at each other _ , though both wore similarly confused and agitated expressions.

Finn didn't think anyone was aiming at him, but he nonetheless moved slowly, wrapping his bad arm around Sam first, for what scant extra protection it provided.

_ Force _ , his shoulder hurt. And his soldiers, people who had served alongside each other, were panicking and pointing blasters at each other—not to mention the civilians, who were still murmuring loudly and waving their own blasters all over like they couldn't decide who to aim at. The point was, no one know who to trust, and this was going to get very bad very fast if he didn’t put a stop to it. 

“There's no need for this. Stand down, all of you,” he said, voice raised to carry. “If we let one betrayal mess with our heads like this, the First Order are the ones who win.” 

Coni and Sevens both glanced at him, and he glared at them. Both soldiers returned to staring at each other, and then Finn saw Sevens clench their jaw tight. 

They raised the muzzle of their blaster and then holstered it, still grinding their teeth. Coni, still looking a bit bewildered, did the same. A shuffle in the corner of his vision drew his attention to Torch doing the same. He shifted to stand at Finn's shoulder and said something softly to Sam, who was still crying.

Finn sighed softly. Three down, a couple hundred or so to go.


	8. Chapter 8

The First Order was attempting to jam their comms, and Poe was now having trouble hailing anyone on the surface or even getting his computers to register properly (though that may have been an A-wing issue, BB-8 pointed out), so the best visual he had was whatever he could see out his canopy past the spinning stars.

Okay, if they couldn’t get the _Supremacy_ or one of the star destroyers to block the trajectory from the dreadnought fast enough, they might be able to disrupt the beam with enough firepower of their own. Otherwise, throwing a capital ship of their _own_ into the path of the blast might save everyone on the planet…

Not a call Poe was going to make.

The dreadnought’s weapons were powered up fully, now, and Poe at first dreaded when it didn't fire and then whooped as he realized why. Kylo Ren had gone for it: the _Falcon_ had lured the _Supremacy_ close enough that they couldn’t take the shot.

(Boy, they _really_ hated that ship.)

Another minute gained while they repositioned. Any minute now they’d be facing the force-using manbaby in one of his fancy TIE fighters, and, oh, boy, was Poe looking forward to that—even if it meant it might leave someone with intelligence in charge of the star destroyer.

“Rey, you’re doing great! Keep the _Supremacy_ between the planet and the dreadnought. And watch out for those TIEs!”   

If they only had someone on the inside—someone who could...hijack a star destroyer. Yeah, that’d be nice. Maybe he could land on it, commandeer it, and fly it into…

A one-hit explosion on a TIE fighter clicked an idea into place. No one knew the inside of Imperial ships like Rey. Maybe she could—flip some switches…

It was still less crazy than trying to fly into the path of an air-to-ground blaster beam.

…

“That was not a selective ‘all of you,’” Finn said, his voice carrying a mild warning as he looked around at armed civilians and soldiers alike.

“This is not the Empire or the First Order. We do not hold the actions of one or two individuals against an entire group, here. Surely we're still better than that,” he continued. “It would be a tragedy to discover that what we've fought for—what our friends and family have _died_ for—has been lost to cowardice and fear.”

Sam was still whimpering against his shoulder, maybe not liking the deep disappointment in his voice, or maybe sensing his pain, or maybe just upset because he was scared. Maybe it was all three. Finn could sympathize.

In fact, some of the pebbles on the ground were starting to rumble and float.

“Shh, Sammy,” he told his son, and then wondered with alarm if _he_ was doing that.

“For the sake of what we all hold dear, put your weapons away and start acting like you know what it means to be a part of this Republic,” he finished.

…

“Their weapons are primed,” Leia said. “But they’re not firing. We’ve got them right where we want them.”

“You can’t think this will work,” said a voice behind them again. Kylo Ren stood there, looking nervous but uninjured—maybe the blaster shot _wouldn’t_ register across whatever this Force-connection was. But Leia could see and hear him this time, even without touching Rey. “We’ll simply outmaneuver you. The Rebellion, the Resistance, the Republic. You always make the same mistakes and never put enough into your offensive weaponry.”

And their scanners showed that the Supremacy was indeed changing course, and so was the dreadnought with powered up weapons. The _Falcon_ ’s computer estimated another thirty seconds before they would be in range.

“No, but we put it into hope. And people,” Leia said, sounding vaguely pained, but as from an old wound that just made her angry now. “I taught you that every day of your life. What happened?”

“Hope!” Kylo Ren laughed. “I absorbed the lesson, mother,” he sneered, and leaned against the side of the doorway (rather like Han used to do, but Leia ignored that), trying to exude calm to cover up his nerves (also like Han, but much worse at it). “And that's how I know you can always be beaten.”

“Oh, you’re not going to beat us today,” Rey said, gritting her teeth and swinging back around.

“Rey, what are you doing?” Leia asked, mostly so she could try to help, though Rey reached across her to do the copiloting herself, instinctively. The _Falcon_ actually swung around and came straight at the _Supremacy_ , guns blazing, enough that Kylo Ren straightened up again.

“You can’t possibly—” he said.

“Poe, I’m gonna need you to cover me,” Rey said.

“Rey!” Poe’s voice shouted, muffled over the comlink. “What the hell are you doing? You’re not actually going to fly _closer_?!”

BB-8 screeched something equally admonishing.

“Just cover me,” Rey said, and switched off the comms.

And then she switched _on_ the tractor beam.

Leia blinked. “That’s your plan. We’re going to _tow_ a mega-class—”

“ _We’re_ not going to,” Rey said, and turned back to glare at Kylo Ren. “The Force is.”

“What?!” Kylo Ren said, laughing again, but sounding just worried enough to give her the confidence she needed.

It took everything in her to turn her back on him, and close her eyes, and _trust_. Trust Poe to protect her ship, trust Leia to support her, trust that Kylo Ren wasn’t actually here and couldn’t touch her, trust that the through the Force she could do this.

“I hate it when you sound like my brother,” Leia grumbled, and then also closed her eyes.

Rey started small, using the ship’s own momentum to direct it where she wanted. She could see the battle clearly once she emptied her mind, and knew exactly the direction she wanted to go. The _Supremacy_ was caught in the _Falcon_ ’s tractor beam, sure, but like a Hutt bound to her by a thread.

But her ally was the Force, and she began to _pull_.

It was a physical effort, in some sense, and she grunted and panted aloud, sweat beading on her brow as she reached out in front of her.

But the starship moved. The mega-class star destroyer that had Kylo Ren and possibly Supreme Leader Snoke on it _moved_ at her bidding. She had it. She was going to do this.

The phantom of Kylo Ren was screaming enraged obscenities at her and his mother behind them. But she was in the Force. He was insignificant.

And then Snoke’s face appeared in her vision, bald and scarred, his eyes like black holes. “You cannot win this way. You’ll kill yourself, just like Luke Skywalker did. Without the Dark side, you don’t have enough power, child.”

“It’s not power, Snoke,” Rey said. “It’s _knowledge_.”

This was a surprise coming from Rey, even to Rey herself. Rey had no formal education, and her reading was still only passable. She suspected strongly that her skills in mechanics and piloting had more to do with the Force than with any innate intelligence. Poe was smart: he had trained at the Republic Academy. Finn was smart: he had tested for officer in track in record time, and was probably the youngest Colonel since the days of the Rebellion. Especially compared to her husbands, Rey didn't consider herself exceptionally intelligent, or even all that wise.

But _no one_ knew, with as much experiential, tactile, non-theoretical knowledge, the inside of a star destroyer like she did. Knowing the insides of them had been literally a matter of life and death for her, while Finn was training in the First Order and Poe was a young officer for the New Republic. Maybe Kylo Ren’s role in leaving her to scavenge for her life on Jakku was the best thing he ever did for her, because she followed the invisible lines of the Force through the star destroyer, noting new upgrades in the design with intimate familiarity. She knew the engines, and how they worked, and where to trip each circuit, no matter what buttons the technicians hit, and directed the entire ship where she willed, keeping the _Supremacy_ always between the planet and the rest of the First Order fleet, like an unwilling hostage, a body shield. The rest of the fleet moved up on her, but Poe kept the TIEs at bay.

“Ah,” Snoke said, and might have sounded impressed. “Then it appears we are at an impasse.”

Then he chuckled. “What a good thing that the _Supremacy_ ’s weapons are _also_ primed and aimed at the planet, then.”

Rey opened her eyes, her concentration broken before she could go for the _Supremacy_ ’s cannons. 

“NO!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please don't hate us, but MayG is travelling so we're going on a 2-week hiatus at this horrible cliffhanger!! Thanks for your love and support, and we'll be back with the exciting concluding chapters after the break! We hope you'll like where it ends up.


	9. Chapter 9

“Finn! Colonel, the _Supremacy_ has charged weapons, and they’re in range to fire!” Connix came in through his comlink, all of a sudden after their interruption. 

“What the hell happened, lieutenant, are you—” 

“We need to evacuate the planet, Colonel,” she said, voice tight liked she didn’t think they could do it in time. “There was an incident in the Conn, but it’s under control. Holdo is injured. You’re in charge. We need to evacuate.” 

Of course there wasn’t time. The sky was growing red above them, beyond the force field that protected them. In moments, the blast from the _Supremac_ y would reach them, destroying first their shield and then everything under it. Kes and his farm, Madine, Chicken, and the horses, all the rescued stormtroopers and all the children from Jedha, and their guardians. 

Not to mention most of the Republic and its government.

No.

Not again. 

Finn held Sam close and, ignoring everyone else, ran to where he could see the open sky.

What else were his impossible magic powers for? Training or no, if it killed him, he would stop this. If stopping it left him a burned-out shell, he would make that sacrifice. The alternatives were nothing he could stomach.

When he stumbled outside, Finn set Sam down gently with a kiss on his fuzzy head, and Sam watched him solemnly.

 _May the Force of others be with me,_ he thought as he stared up at the flickering shield. He closed his eyes. _May the Force of others be with me,_ he thought, like a mantra. There were a _lot_ of others here. He clenched his hands into fists and felt for the Force, like he did when he was meditating with Rey or when he'd shared memories with his mother.

Poe had told the children a story about Luke and Yoda, when Luke had been much younger and only just learning how to use the Force. _Judge me by my size, do you? And well you should not. For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us_ , Yoda had said, and then he'd lifted an X-Wing from the swamp as if it were nothing heavier than a small stone.

Finn didn't know how to lift anything with the Force. He didn't know how to do anything with it, for that matter, except sense it, maybe. But Anakin had told him he was like his grandmother Padmé—capable of accomplishing what he wanted through stubborn force of will, with or without the Force.

And hadn't he once watched Kylo Ren stop a blaster bolt shot at him by a cocky Resistance spy? It had looked as effortless as if he'd been catching a boloball, and Finn had stared, marveling (and a little horrified).

If only he had known then that he was Kylo Ren’s cousin, with as much power in the Force as he. 

Around him, people were screaming and shouting, having followed him outside. He could hear Sevens—who had somehow ended up with Sam in their arms—trying to reassure the baby as the shield crackled and popped like an overloaded circuit, the blast from the _Supremacy_ already overwhelming it. The others had gathered, too, scared and furious and disbelieving. Finn took a deep breath and reached for the _Supremacy's_ blast. To stop it.

It was like trying to hold on to a bolt of lightning, whatever that felt like, and he flinched away for a second before gritting his teeth and trying again. _May the Force of others be with me_ , he thought, a bit frantically, and grasped the blast. _Anything Kylo can do, I can do_ , he thought, but that was dangerous, angry. The shield burned and sizzled and cracked. 

Finn re-centered himself. _May the Force of others be with me_ , he thought again, slightly panicked. It was too much. He was going to fail.

_We are one with the Force, and the Force is with us._

Dimly, Finn realized someone had joined him, standing shoulder to shoulder with him, arms also outstretched. He recognized the steady presence of his mother, her light in the Force rippling with its own power, and she steadied his grasp.

People around them gasped. So far, so good. 

They still needed to move it, or deflect it, somehow, or else eventually they would lose it. Even Kylo Ren had only really been able to _stop_ Poe's blaster bolt rather than extinguish it, and it was all they could do to merely hold the thing where it had broken through the shield. It should have been impossible that they were holding it back at all. Finn hoped his mother had a solution.

She only held tighter to the blast.

 _Do or do not; there is no try_ , Finn thought, and ground his teeth. 

“The shield is holding!” someone shouted, but Finn barely heard them. 

“That’s not the shield, that’s—”

“That’s... _them_!” 

The crowd backed up a little from Finn and Mara Jade, murmuring in alarm and wonderment. 

Suralinda Javos turned her camera droid on the two figures, already writing the story in her head: the former stormtrooper and the former Emperor’s Hand, both of them holding back destruction. Their limbs trembled, like they were holding up the weight of a planet with an unseen power. 

 _New plan, Javos: write the story now,_ she thought suddenly, realizing the terrible danger, and became the only being able to look away. _Send it out now. You may not have a chance to later_. 

It was only because she looked away that she was the only one who saw a figure dressed all in white approaching. 

…

Poe realized he was screaming for nothing before he realized he was screaming, and he swung around to get another look at the planet. The TIE fighters all around them seemed to be doing the same. 

The blast stopped between the surface of the planet and the _Supremacy_! The shields were holding! 

Poe whooped, but this wasn’t over yet. The shields wouldn’t hold forever, so they had to—

“Poe, it’s through the shields,” Rey said. “That’s... _Finn_.” 

Poe laughed. “Finn _what—?_ ” 

But he felt it, too, with whatever little connection to the Force he had. If Rey’s use of the Force, which he felt all the time, was like ripples in a pond, the sudden realization of Finn was a tsunami. That was Finn’s power. He flashed back, oddly, to being captured on Jakku, when Kylo Ren had stopped his blaster bolt in mid-air. Was Finn doing the same thing? Poe didn’t know Finn could even lift rocks! Didn’t you have to start with lifting rocks? 

“No, that’s Luke,” Leia’s voice cut in. “And by the way, Poe, we could use some help!” 

“Sorry!” Poe said, screaming around to fight off a few TIEs, thinking that they really needed a plan that went beyond expecting the Jedi to save them. 

“No, it’s definitely Finn,” Rey protested. 

“I can feel it,” Leia insisted. “They’re both down there. Luke’s awake.” 

…

Finn couldn’t look away from the light as he held the blast in his outstretched hand, his vision searing red, like he was staring into the sun. He couldn’t look away; he knew his mother was beside him only because he felt her strength in the Force, and he saw, from the corner of his vision, her slender dark arm outstretched beside his. 

And as he drew on the presence of everyone around them, and on every living thing around them as well as the earth and the rocks, he felt a _third_ shining power take hold of the blast with them.

“Well done, son,” this new voice said, but Finn wasn’t sure he actually heard it until he felt a hand on his shoulder. Instantly he knew who it was, and instantly the weight of the blast lessened, as the greatest Jedi who ever lived, _his father_ , stood beside him. 

Finn smiled, though it was still something of a grimace. He blinked away tears that were streaming down his face. 

What a time for a family reunion. 

…

Rey closed her eyes and smiled. She could feel Finn in the Force, and Luke once again, too. Like bright beacons of light that made the frozen beam of destructive energy look shadowy by comparison. To say that it inspired her was something of an understatement. Really it was more that it helped her settle herself into the Force, showing her exactly where her place was in it, as everything around her in the Force lit up. 

“It’s not going to hold forever,” Kylo Ren told her, and Rey blinked around her to realize she was the one now on the bridge of the Supremacy, with Kylo Ren and all his officers—including Terex—around her. They could neither see nor hear her, and were very much pretending to not hear Lord Ren talking to himself. “No one has that much power, not even a Jedi. Not even two.” 

“Not even three?” Rey asked, smiling, as her eyes began to glow with a pale blue light, and lightning crackled from her fingertips. “What about four?” 

There were rules to this strange connection she and Kylo Ren had. They couldn’t harm each other, and they weren’t really “there,” so anything she had to do, she did from the _Falcon_. 

The projection of her, however, the one on the bridge of the _Supremacy_ , touched her hand to a console just to see it spark and short out. The officer sitting there screamed and jumped back, hands burnt. 

“What are you doing?” Kylo demanded. “How are you doing that?”  

“I’m remembering where all the important fuses are in a star destroyer, and blowing every single one,” she said. “You can thank yourself for killing my parents and stranding me on Jakku. I had a long time to learn where fuses are in star destroyers. How to turn off the failsafes. How to start fires. How the _engines_ work.” 

Kylo roared and activated his lightsaber, but the blade whiffed through her, harmlessly, and she closed her eyes and smiled. Maybe the officers on the bridge could see her now, or maybe they just panicked at Ren’s reaction, but they began backing away in alarm.

Rey closed her eyes and kept working. She followed conduits and maintenance hatches for miles in her mind, disabling their reverse thrusters, making control panels spark, causing techs to cry out and fly backward. The bridge of the _Supremacy_ was lit up in flames.

Looking out the canopy of his A-wing, Poe swore he could see blue lightning crackling across the hull of the star destroyer, and the whole massive ship was turning, slowly, towards the other dreadnought. 

And Leia didn’t dare look behind her again, but she heard Kylo Ren screaming again, in rage or pain, and she thought she could smell burning hair and flesh. 

…

Poe opened a channel as soon as it became clear what was happening. The dreadnought was turning too late, and the _Supremacy_ , flaming and crackling and spewing escape pods, was headed straight for it. 

“This is Rear Admiral Poe Dameron of the Republic Navy. All First Order vessels are invited to stand down. Your officers may not care if you die in the service of the First Order, but we don’t want to kill you. Surrender, and you will be treated fairly. Retreat, and we will not pursue. Your fleet and its leaders are—whoa!” 

The two star destroyers smashing together created a shockwave that rocked his little starfighter, and he peeled away. The explosions were instantaneous, chain-reacting through both vessels, lighting up the sky. The blast aimed at the planet flickered and was sucked backwards into the star destroyers—though whether that was Finn or Rey’s handiwork, Poe couldn’t tell. 

“Well,” Poe continued. “Uh, there they are.” He laughed, a little giddy with relief, trying to think of a good sign-off. “Come to the light side. We have...cake?” 

Poe cut the transmission. 

[‘We have cake?’ That’s what you went with.] BB-8 repeated. 

“It was just something to say, Bee,” Poe said. “But it’s true. I mean. I’m not sure we have _enough_ cake, but we do have—” 

“Poe! Poe, they’re surrendering!” Snap’s voice shouted, breaking up over the comlink. “Poe, they’re all standing down or bugging out! All Resistance—I mean, Republic fighters, this is Commander Wexley. Cease fire unless fired upon! They’re surrendering!”


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oops we were out of town again!

“Colonel! Hello? Colonel Dameron? Finn!” Connix was shouting in his ear, but when he tried to tap the earpiece to respond, he felt suddenly dizzy. Was it over? Ow, also his arm hurt. He blinked, his vision spotty like he had stared at the sun, which he kind of had. He reached up and tapped the earpiece with one finger.

“Could, ah, could you stop yelling, please?” he asked, staggering forward a few steps. “Where’s…?” 

Sam. He’d set him down here, hadn’t he?

“The First Order is retreating, Colonel. Well, some of them. Most of them are surrendering…?” Connix said at a normal volume, sounding confused. “Finn, what the hell just  _ happened _ ?”

“Think I...overdid it...” he answered, and abruptly dropped to his knees. “Sam?” 

“Right here, sir,” Sevens said, and Finn looked up to see Sam in their arms. Oh, good. Sam liked Sevens. He was going to need to stay with them a bit. While Finn took a...nap.

“Finn!” Luke said, and knelt in front of him, and touched his cheek, like he was trying to keep him conscious. 

Luke was dressed all in white, like an embodiment of the Force, until Finn realized the white he was dressed in was because he was dressed in the thin garb provided by Medical. It almost made him laugh. 

Luke smiled, too.

“Finn. You did it.” Now the way he said his name felt warm and fond and proud, and all the things Finn wanted a father’s voice to sound like. And he was his. His father.

His mother also knelt beside him, gripping his shoulder and gasping as she realized his other one was injured. “Finn, my  _ son _ . My wonderful boy.” 

Luke turned halfway to her, looking, for all Finn could tell, a little panic-stricken. “ _ Mara _ . I’m sorry, Mara, I-I didn’t  _ know— _ ”

There was a lot he hadn’t known, Finn thought distantly. Must have been tough for a Jedi. 

But Mara wasn’t looking at Luke—couldn’t bring herself to, maybe—and shook her head, still gazing at Finn like he hung the stars in the sky and kept them there with the Force—which, he kind of had, just now, with help. 

“Neither did I,” she said. “But now we know.” 

Finn sagged as tears pricked his eyes, mirrored in the watery eyes of his parents—his parents!—and Luke and Mara got their arms around him, holding him up. Everything around him went slow and muffled, and he leaned into their arms, feeling safe and like he suddenly belonged in ways he never had before. He heard Sam screaming and saw him wriggling in Sevens’ arms, and was vaguely aware of his mother and maybe someone wearing a Medical badge trying to get a better look at his shoulder, and then darkness crowded in and he knew no more.

…

Luke and Mara locked eyes as Finn fell against Luke’s chest, for the first time after too many years. 

“Mara. I can’t believe—”

“—You’re awake. Luke, I thought—”

“—You were dead. I didn’t know—”

“—You had a son.” 

“ _ We _ had a son.” 

They grasped hands, resting them on Finn’s chest. 

“He takes after you,” they both said together, and then laughed, embarrassed. Both of them were crying.

“Uh, sir? Ma’am? Can we—?”

Luke blinked around him in surprise, staring into the face of some young medics trying to see to Finn. He was alright, of course, just needed rest, and his shoulder seen to. Wasn’t he? Maybe for a new father he should be more worried. “Right. I think we should  _ all  _ go to medical. I feel like I could eat three tauntauns.” 

Medics began lifting Finn and laying him out on a stretcher. Luke’s eyes followed him.

Mara wrinkled her nose, getting to her feet and helping Luke up after her. “Have you ever  _ eaten  _ tauntaun?” 

“Yes. That is how hungry I am. Whups!” As the old Jedi lost his footing, two more stretchers appeared, one for each of them. 

The few remaining officers tried to organize things and keep the peace, though the “party” was now more or less ruined. Sam was especially not having a good lifeday, as Sevens followed them back to medical with him held against their chest. 

They were almost back at medical again when Luke asked, almost deliriously, “...So I heard something about cake?” 

...

The next twenty-five hours were a blur. No one got much sleep: Kix was processing those who had surrendered; Holdo—her arm in a sling—and Poe were with Connix figuring out who and what they lost and shoring up their defenses. The Tico sisters were in charge of salvage and repairs; Wexley commanded search and rescue of the disabled star destroyers as well as keeping consistent patrols running in case of another attack; Senator Antilles was already headed to the Senate on Coruscant to make his report on the attack; even Kes Dameron, with  _ his  _ arm in a sling, worked to help clean up after the party—or he tried to, until every former stormtrooper who wasn’t on-duty showed up to help him and his workers. 

The only people who did get some sleep in that twenty-five hours were Finn and Rey, mainly because they were unconscious. 

Finn woke up first, and that was mostly because he was hungry. Starving, in fact, and he was just considering trying to get up or at least get a medical droid's attention when Dr. Kalonia saved him the trouble and appeared in the doorway.

“Ah, finally awake, Colonel Dameron?” she asked with a smile, which he returned. “I predict your mother will be by shortly, then. And Master Luke.” 

It took Finn a moment to remember that Luke was awake now, and had helped stop the _Supremacy_ 's weapon from destroying Yavin IV.

Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade, his parents, had helped  _ him  _ stop the  _ Supremacy _ ’s weapon. That part he was still trying to believe. 

“What about Kes? And the Admiral? Who did we lose?” he asked, suddenly, having caught up to being awake enough that he had a hundred questions. “And can I have some food?” 

“Ever the soldier,” the doctor remarked with a smile, and set a tray on his lap and moved his bed into a sitting position. “Losses were minimal, Former Admiral Holdo is in recovery, and Sergeant Dameron better be alright if he's looking after your son. Rey is doing—well.”

She looked briefly like she was about to add something to that, but didn't. Instead she handed Finn a datapad over his meal, which he had begun eating. “I believe you can access all the After-Action Reports you wish from here. But you should probably start with this...”

Tapping on the icon for the Galaxy Beacon, she pulled up the headline for the weekend edition. 

_ He _ was on the cover, arms pushing against the sky, with Luke and Mara on either side of him. The headline read “Skywalkers Save Stormtrooper Celebration.”

Finn stared at it for a moment, marveling a little at how  _ he  _ was counted among the fabled Skywalkers, now. Even at that, he wondered how he'd managed to do—whatever it was he had done to stop a blast of photon energy midair. He remembered how desperate he'd been to save everyone, and had to assume necessity was it. He didn't think he could lift a leaf right now, much less stop a superweapon.

He paged through the article, but found he didn't really need to read it. He knew what had happened on the planet, after all, and it didn't contain much detail on what had happened in the battle above. He skipped to the end instead, and realized it was a transcript of the short-burst news clips that Suralinda wrote while he'd held back the blast with Luke and his mother. The other pages of the Beacon contained the rest of the story—probably even what had happened above the planet—but he wanted to hear about that from Rey and Poe.

He looked back up at Dr. Kalonia, and she smiled softly at him, offering him a packet of water.

“I wouldn't blame you for needing a moment to catch up,” she told him, and then heard footsteps down the hall. “Not that you'll have one,” she added, and stepped aside to allow Poe through the doorway.

“Finn!” Poe said, and rushed into Finn’s arms. He looked and smelled like he hadn’t slept or bathed in days. He was still wearing a flight suit, but his full beard was Finn’s first clue about how long he had been out. Poe patted him down gently, touching his chest and then grabbing his face and kissing him. “Buddy, you’re awake! How you doing, how’s the shoulder?” 

“Fine,” Finn said, a little dizzily, and then grabbed Poe’s arm to peer at a bandage around his wrist. “What happened to you?” 

“ _ You _ two happened to me,” Poe accused, though perhaps it was from worry. “Next time you two are gonna dial up your Force powers to nuclear, I won’t wear my best flying gloves!” 

His tattoo of their names winding around his wrist, part of their Force bond, had lit up like a lightsaber during the battle, so hot he hadn’t even noticed until he landed that it burned his skin and his gloves quite badly. “I almost wouldn’t have believed what you two had done if not for…that.” 

Poe shook his head, then glanced at Finn’s side—“Rey awake?”—and then up at Dr. Kalonia. 

“Give her a bit longer,” Dr. Kalonia said, knowingly. “She needs the rest.” 

Finn looked over at Rey and frowned for a moment. She looked fine, but…

“Is she okay?” he asked, and Kalonia waved away his concern and smiled.

“Yes, she's fine. She just over-extended herself. I hope this isn't going to become a habit with all of you,” she said.

“More than it already is?” Poe asked. “At least you come by it honestly. Master Skywalker woke up from a dead coma just to over-exert himself, again. He’s up by now, though.” 

“I don't even know how I did it,” Finn answered. He moved over to give Poe room and tugged him over so he'd sit down. “Not even with help…”

Poe cupped his face again like he was the most beautiful man in the galaxy. “Cause you’re Finn Skywalker, that’s why! Incidentally, if we want to change the family name, we’re going to have to start that paperwork soon…” 

Dr. Kalonia returned with another tray laden with food, “Since it looks like you haven’t eaten all day, either, Commander.” 

“Thanks, Doc,” Poe said, launching into the story of the past three days, filling Finn in backwards. “I just came from a meeting with Kix, and, boy, will he be glad you’re awake, seeing as how we’ve got about twenty thousand stormtroopers to process. That’s the biggest news, though Rey’s going to be sad she’s missing out on all the S&R and scavenging...or maybe not.” 

Poe laughed then, nearly spitting out his drink. “Oh, and you’ll want to check this out, it’ll make you laugh.  _ The Galactic Inquirer _ did a piece on us, trying to compete with Suralinda’s article. You read her piece?” 

He flicked through Finn’s datapad to pull up the piece of trash that was masquerading as real journalism. The headline read  _ Jedi Pregnant—But Whose Baby? _

Finn actually snorted, nearly spitting out his food,, though he was more angry than amused, actually. “That’s what they go with? We save the galaxy and all they care about is who’s pregnant?” 

“I know, it’s terrible,” Poe laughed. The article cited as their sources a blurry and somehow unflattering picture of Rey as well as a phoney medical report. 

Finn huffed and swiped it away. “I can’t believe you made me click that.” 

“Come on, it’s funny.” 

“So, does the First Order have  _ any _ troops left?” he asked. He was having trouble imagining twenty  _ thousand _ deserted (or captured) troopers. Kix must be losing his mind...

“Well, yeah,” Poe said. “At least one star destroyer got away, and tons of escape pods and fighters. We let ‘em go, since, ah, we had enough to deal with. Do they have any sizeable operation to be a threat to the galaxy any time soon, however? No comment!”

Poe laughed, and explained the joke that was only funny to him: “We’ve decided not to have any comment on that front. The second that the New Republic can pretend this little thing is behind us is exactly when they’re going to want to disarm again, and the First Order is going to jump on that again. So no comment.” 

“When will they learn?” Finn sighed. “No comment it is, then.” 

They ate for a minute in quiet, and then Finn sighed.

“Rey  _ must _ be tired, if the smell of food hasn't even woken her up,” he said wistfully, watching her as if staring at her might wake her up. She was a Jedi, after all. She could probably tell when people were staring at her in her sleep, right?

He stared a little harder.

Poe covered up Finn’s eyes, chuckling. “Buddy! You’re just as likely to shoot laser beams right through her with your eyes, don’t do that.” 

Finn scoffed, but stopped staring at Rey since it hadn't helped anyway. Instead, he smiled softly at Poe. “I don't think that's how the Force works…”

“What do  _ you  _ know? You just figured out you could do this two days ago,” Poe laughed, a little punch-drunk from exhaustion and too much caf. 

A soft coo followed by a shriek interrupted them from the doorway. Poe stood up. “Oh, that’s right, Sammy’s been with his granddad today…” 

But where Finn expected to see Kes, steadfast as ever, instead the man standing in the doorway holding Sam was—

“Luke,” Finn stammered. “Uh. Dad?” 

Luke looked so happy he might have lapped that emotion and come around behind it again into sadness. “Son—”

He stood there, near tears, until Sam’s squirming and Poe’s insistent inviting got him to move. Poe relieved Luke of the baby, shushing him while Luke sat heavily in a chair beside Finn’s bed. “I...I don’t know why I couldn’t see it, Finn. I know Snoke must have—blocked my ability to sense you, to—know it was  _ you _ .” 

He took Finn’s hands, and he thought again how these hands should have reminded Luke of his wife’s hands, every time he held them before now. 

“Then again, you know,” he laughed a little giddily, his eyes full of tears, “I fought Vader several times before I knew he was my father. And he had to tell me—I... M-maybe I’m just bad at this.” 

He wiped his eyes, feeling like a very foolish, fond, old man.

“Maybe you're just…normal at it,” Finn suggested with a sympathetic smile. It must be difficult, not knowing your own child when you were used to understanding so much of the universe so clearly.

Luke collapsed into a loud and undignified snort. 

“Maker, is this how normal people feel all the time?!” Luke demanded sarcastically. “Not  _ knowing  _ things?!” 

When Finn laughed, Luke shook his head and cupped Finn’s cheek. “Finn. Oh, Finn. If knowing the Force meant we knew everything else, wouldn’t that just solve so much?” 

“It would certainly make things a lot easier,” Finn agreed. Then again… He met Luke's eyes, and they both considered this for a long moment. “Or maybe it would be more trouble than it's worth.”

Luke smiled, and patted his cheek before dropping his hand back to the bed. 

“Perhaps. Still, I'm sorry, Finn,” Luke said, sobering. He looked down at his hands, and so did Finn. 

A sad, slightly wistful feeling had lodged in Finn's chest that he was pretty sure was coming from Luke, and he frowned, trying to figure out if that was right or if this was his own emotion. 

“You deserved better. In so many ways,” Luke said.

Finn blinked when Luke touched his hand to bring his attention back. The older man watched him with the same patient gaze Finn had seen him give Rey when she was trying to understand something new. Finn knew from experience that Luke could wait for long minutes like this.

“I...would have liked to know you when I was young,” Finn ventured. 

“And I would have liked to know you when I was young...er,” Luke replied, only a little wryly, before looking pained again. “The Dark side was too strong. Not around you, but around me, and your mother. We can’t underestimate the power of the Dark side—even now, when it feels like we’ve won.” 

“ _ Feels _ like?” Poe repeated, accidentally re-inserting himself into the conversation. “I mean—I’m sorry, but—the First Order doesn’t have much of anything  _ left _ … ‘No comments’ aside.”

“I said the Dark side, not the First Order,” Luke corrected. “But I do feel that the Dark side has been—shaken. Who wouldn’t be, after that? That was pretty neat.”

“I'm more worried about Snoke,” Finn said, “I don't think the First Order will be done until he's done, and—enough escape pods got away that we can’t rule anything out. They'll just keep crawling away to regroup and then attacking us again.”

“He’s...important to be worried about,” Luke conceded. "But not the only one."

Finn paused to fidget uneasily with the edge of his blanket, picking at a thread that was already loose.

“I'm not sure I can fight him,” he admitted quietly. What if everyone wanted him to, after what he'd done in saving the planet? But his mother and—and his father—had helped. Maybe Rey had helped too, in her way. 

“Snoke?” Luke asked, though Finn wasn’t thinking about Snoke. “None of us can fight him alone, certainly. His power erased your existence, in our databases  _ and  _ memories. I think he—” 

“Well, to be fair,” said a new voice at the door, where Leia now stood, “it took  _ us  _ three years to figure out we were related. And we’re twins.” 

Luke seemed annoyed, or perhaps vaguely embarrassed. “ _ Leia _ .”

Finn couldn't help grinning at the fond exasperation in Luke's voice when he greeted his sister.

“I thought you were busy arguing with Senator Holdo,” Luke continued dryly, rallying.

“I thought you were busy sleeping,” Leia answered, sassing him right back. Finn would never, ever get used to the General and the last Jedi Master teasing each other like siblings.

“And I'm a little surprised you're not still busy sleeping, after all of that,” she told Finn, and turned to Rey. “Like Rey, she’s clearly the sensible one.” 

“Tell me about it,” Poe groaned, and stood up. “I remember what sleep felt like. Speaking of, I’m triple-booked for three meetings I'm supposed to be at right now, so me and Sammy have gotta go, unless you feel up to keeping an eye on him?” 

At that moment, Rey’s eyes snapped open. 


	11. Chapter 11

Rey had been dreaming, again, of the snow and battling Kylo Ren. If the dream had changed at all from before it was in that she was winning, now, and Kylo Ren looked badly injured, badly burned. There was still blood in the snow, and she knew it was hers, but she was _winning—_

“Finn!” she cried, sitting up, hair spilling wildly around her shoulders. Finn had stood there, too, in her dream, with his father’s lightsaber—but now it faded, like a dream she couldn’t remember now she was awake. 

Finn, in the middle of reaching for Sam, startled and turned to her.

“Rey! You’re awake!” he replied, reaching over for her hand. She snaked her arm out of her blankets and grasped his hand warmly for a moment.

“I’m awake—how are _you_ awake?” she countered, “Finn, you used the Force!”

Her gaze shifted to Luke and Leia.

“And you’re awake!” she added.

“Rey!” Poe cried, rushing to her side. Sam, too, shrieked his joy that his mother was awake. “How you feeling, sweetheart? Can I get you anything?” 

Rey swallowed carefully, looking vaguely in pain or—sick. 

“I think I’m feeling...pregnant?”

Finn blinked, not sure he had fully understood what Rey had just said. Maybe he _should_ still be sleeping. Had Rey just said she was feeling _pregnant_? How did one _feel_ pregnant? 

“Wait. What?” he asked.

Poe, for his part, was so startled he actually dropped Sam. Not a good reaction for someone who was just told he was going to be a father for the second time, and luckily Sam only fell hard on Rey’s knee and shrieked his displeasure, getting up and crawling towards his mother under his own power while Poe felt faint and sat down. 

“You—you’re—how?” 

“Well, Poe, when two men love a woman—” Luke began. 

Poe stood up again and jabbed a finger at him. “No! It’s still too early for dad jokes coming from you.” He turned back to Rey. “Rey, you’re pregnant? You went into a dogfight pregnant? You knew? How did you know? Why didn’t you tell us?”

This last was directed at Dr. Kalonia, who had just returned, seeing that Rey was awake. 

“Patient confidentiality, Admiral Dameron. She asked me not to tell anyone.” 

“Rey! You knew?!” Poe cried, really too tired to deal with all of this. 

“ _When_ did you know?” Finn asked, having finally processed that _he wasn’t hearing things and his wife was pregnant._

He paused, shook his head in astonishment, and laughed. Sam, confused, patted his mother on the shoulder reassuringly.

“What that?” he asked loudly, and when Finn looked at him in confusion, he adopted a look of deep concentration, and succeeded at what sounded like “Gegnant,” and was enough to go on.

“Oh! Oh. Uh. Pregnant? It’s, um—” Finn trailed off, because he definitely hadn’t planned on explaining this to Sam right now. “It means your mom is going to have a baby, and you’re going to be a brother!” 

Sam looked thoughtful again, but then brightened.

“Brover!” he agreed. “I hewp!”

“Yes, you will, kiddo,” Poe praised, rubbing his son’s back, and taking Rey’s hand. 

“Congratulations,” Leia said, stepping forward to take her other hand. “I’d mention that twins run in the family, but I think that was the idea…?” 

“Yes, and we confirmed that,” Rey said, looking at Dr. Kalonia with gratitude. “They’re the children in my dreams. One is Finn’s, and one is Poe’s. You’re both going to be fathers.” 

Poe actually shook his head as he kissed her hair. “I hate to ruin the sentiment, but we’re _already_ fathers.”

Luke, meanwhile, squeezed Finn’s shoulder. “I’m sorry to say the men in your family haven’t given you much to look up to for models of fatherhood. But I think it’s already clear you’re doing fine in that department.” 

Finn smiled softly at Luke, because this was true—even if through no fault of Luke's. He placed his hand over Luke's and squeezed gently. 

“That _does_ make you officially a grandfather again, you know,” he commented dryly, and Luke laughed. 

“As if I hadn't felt old before—!” he replied, and smiled fondly at the little family before him. 

Finn eased himself up from the medical bed and sat heavily beside Rey as Leia stepped back to give him room. He practically beamed as he took Rey's hand and leaned down to kiss first her, then Poe. Sammy, too, received a kiss on the head, though he was very busy trying to pull himself to his feet on Finn's shirt. 

Finn picked him up before he could figure out how to fall off the bed and hurt himself, and since Poe clearly couldn’t be trusted with him.

“ _I love you_ ” he told all three of them, and when that felt inadequate, added, “I love our family.”

“Even the rough edges?” Mara Jade asked from the door. 

“Especially those,” Rey replied, without missing a beat. 

“Mara! Have you heard?” Luke asked her, excitedly, welcoming her in. 

…

Mara had already heard.

_She felt called to the spot, where Rey stood alone with the horses. The party was just beginning, not a cloud or TIE fighter in the sky yet. Rey needed to speak to her, and she needed to speak to Rey._

_Baze raised his head to whicker at her as she approached, and Rey turned to see who had joined them. She smiled when she realized it was Mara, who she'd just been thinking of seeking out before the party really got going._

_"It's hard to believe they're out there," she said, motioning up at the sky and, beyond their sight, what was sure to be a First Order attack force just waiting to crash the party._

_“Mm,” Mara said. “It’s wise not to forget it, though.”_

_"I'm glad to see you," Rey added, though that felt oddly silly._

_Mara didn't seem surprised, though, merely curious. “Why is that?”_

_"Mostly because I was afraid you wouldn't like all of this," Rey responded, this time her hand wave referring to the boisterous party, which was partially true, but wasn't really the most honest answer. "And I wanted to talk to you."_

_Even if it was making her feel increasingly stupid. She was already a mother. Why should this feel so much different? And why was she worried?_

_“Because you’re carrying my grandson.” Mara answered simply. Then she squinted at Rey’s belly like she was searching it, though she couldn’t possibly see anything inside her bigger than a handful of cells still trying to be viable. “No, granddaughter, I think. Twins.”_

_Mara’s gaze snapped up to Rey’s eyes. “But that’s from a vision, isn’t it? Are you sure you’re--?”_

_"I'm sure. Dr. K checked, and she's sure too," Rey answered, "They're the ones from my vision, I think. Twin girls, like the Force said," she added, "Like we all hoped."_

_She sighed deeply and looked down at her hands._

_"I just...thought this would feel different than it does," she said softly._

_“Only different in your mind,” Mara quoted with something of a wry smile, before her eyes darkened again. “You are...afraid? Angry?”_

_Rey shook her head emphatically. "Not angry, really. At the Force, maybe, and the First Order for causing a war and being generally horrible, but not about being pregnant. I'm worried. Maybe a little scared. I was so certain about this until it was real."_

_She paused and reached over to rest a hand on Baze's wind-braided mane, seeking some of the horse's quiet steadiness and finding none. The rest of her thoughts came out in a rush:_

_"I'm afraid I'm wrong, and all of this is wrong, and I'm just trying to_ _—to fulfill what some stupid Force vision said I should. I'm afraid to think too hard about_ why _I want them, in case I want them for the wrong reason."_

_She met Mara's eyes hesitantly, unsure of what she would find reflected there, and unsure what she hoped she would see._

_“If you think I am going to tell you to not be afraid, I won’t. It seems to be a very normal response to bearing children.” Mara shrugged, and almost-smiled. “But then they say I’ve lost my mind, so what do I know? Why does it matter_ why _you want your children? You have them. Or, you will in time. I’m not sure they count as people yet, Force vision or no.”_

_"Was it ever my choice, if I'm just doing what the Force told me to?" Rey countered, because she_ did _want the twins—had already daydreamed about them, and about watching all three of the children grow up--even though Dr. K had warned her that it was very early to assume everything would remain fine—but she was equally afraid she hadn't had a choice in the matter. Maybe the Force made it so she couldn't help but want them._

_“We always have a choice,” Mara said firmly, almost snapped at her._

_Rey sighed. Maybe Mara was right, and it didn't matter, as long as she wanted them, and wanted to love them._

_"But then, what does everyone else do when they get pregnant like they wanted and realize it's more complicated than just being overjoyed?" she added, "Did you ever feel like this? Like none of your choices were maybe really choices at all, and now you have what you wanted but you're afraid there's a catch somewhere?"_

_Mara raised an eyebrow at her, scolding. “You do recall the part where I had my memory wiped by the Empire? I barely remember being pregnant, much less how I felt about it.”_

_Rey made a face. “Sorry. I guess I…never mind.”_

_“Of course I was afraid,” Mara continued. “It would have been stupid not to be. The Emperor’s Hand, carrying the child of Luke Skywalker, the grandchild of Darth Vader? It’s easy to think of it like that. Easy to think of the big things, and be...afraid.”_

_Rey made another face._

_“Alright, maybe not afraid. Concerned.”_

_Then she took Rey by the arm, tugging her so she looked through the crowd, past the barn at Finn, who was wearing a ridiculous birthday hat, and celebrating the anniversary of the day she gave birth to him—probably on the wrong day, but she didn’t have any better idea, and it was the thought that counted. “And whatever I felt then, I couldn’t have known the wonderful human that my body was going to create. No Force vision can show us that.”_

_Finn was laughing at something that Torch was saying to him, his face lit for just a moment with pure, uncomplicated amusement as his second-in-command clapped him on the shoulder before wandering off. Rey's heart, for a moment, felt like it might burst, and she caught her breath sharply._

_"No, I suppose not," she answered._

_A small part of her added, treacherously, that Leia had also not known the son her body was going to create._

_But perhaps that was the point. No one could know the people their children would become. All they could do was give them every chance to make the right decisions. Not even the Force knew where each individual fit into the larger puzzle._

_And probably that was for the better._

_Mara nodded, satisfied, and turned as though to move away, when Rey blurted out: “The Force vision says I die after the girls are born.”_

_Mara regarded her over her shoulder with a casual shrug._

_“Well, then. You had better try not to die.”_

… 

The only one who didn’t react with joy to the news was Kes Dameron. 

“You’re _what_?!” 

“Dad!” Poe cried, aghast. They were back on the Dameron ranch, Rey and Finn both on the mend, but Kes stopped what he was doing, looking stern. 

“You’re resigning, then, right? All of you?” 

Poe’s mouth flapped a few more times before he stood up. He immediately switched to Yavinese—his preferred language for only one thing: arguing with his father—but now that Finn and Rey understood it well enough, it didn’t do much for privacy. 

“[Dad, we’re _not_ having the career-or-children conversation right now. I can’t _believe_ you! You should be happy!]” 

“[I can’t believe _you_! I can’t raise three kids for you while you run off and try to get yourselves killed every day!]” 

“[No one’s asking you to!]”

Finn still didn't _speak_ Yavinese very well, for all he understood it, but he could string a few words together, at least.

“[I'm staying,]” he said, but too quietly to be heard over Kes and Poe in full argument—

“[You don’t know what it’s like to raise a child, much less three! You’re never here!]”

“[I’m not just going to walk away from my responsibilities to the Republic like you and mom did!]”

“Enough! _I'm_ staying!” Finn said, louder, and this time Rey heard him as well. 

“What?” she asked in surprise. 

“What?” Poe said. 

“I want to stay at home when the twins are born,” he clarified. 

Poe and Kes blinked at him, and if how they argued didn’t reveal that they were so similar, the twinned looks of awed disbelief would have given it away. 

“You’re...resigning?” Poe asked first. “Finn, they need you—the stormtroopers…”

“I'm...I don't know. I haven't talked to anyone, but I've thought about it, and…” he sighed deeply. “I know I'm _good_ at fighting and being in command, but, you know. Child soldier. I don't _like_ the military, not like you love flying. I'll still help with the SRTF, of course, but they have Kix, and now Archex, too. They don't need me like they did. It's not like I can help with the Force—I don't know what I'm doing with it, since I haven't learned anything about it. And I would rather learn how to use it…well, as something other than a weapon. Maybe use it to help grow things, or raise our children.”

He looked to Kes, who was still very quiet. All three of them were quiet, and he wondered if he shouldn't maybe have talked about this with Poe and Rey alone first.

“I want to learn the ways of the Force, and I want to become a farmer. Like my fathers,” he finished softly.

“Ha!” Poe laughed, and wondered if Finn knew that was a line from _The Luke Skywalker Adventures_ , or if quippy lines like that were hereditary. 

Kes’ eyes actually brimmed with tears. Like him. Finn wanted to be like _him_. 

“Ah, mijo,” he said, moving to stand beside Finn and squeeze the back of his neck. Then he laughed, unable to keep from disparaging Luke: “You know, it’s not as though the Skywalkers were ever _real_ farmers. Vaporators! More like a mechanic!” 

“Well, I don't think you want me learning how to be a mechanic, especially on your farm equipment...we'd probably have to get Baze and Chirrut to pull a plow again,” Finn laughed, warmed by Kes’ fond teasing. 

“But I can learn how to farm with the hired stormtroopers, and then I'll be able to help around here. And I'll take care of the kids. And you two,” he nodded to Rey and Poe, “can go save the galaxy.” 

And of course he would worry, and being apart from them while they were in danger and while he was in control of nothing would be its own torture. 

But he had never had a choice about fighting, before. Now that he did, he decided this was what he wanted to do. 

Poe and Rey both balked at this. They needed Finn, didn’t they? They were a trio! Did they even want to save the world if Finn wasn’t by their sides? They looked at each other, briefly, each hoping the other might try to persuade him. But Finn had been forced to be a soldier his whole life: did they really want to tell him he had to be one still? 

“I mean,” Poe said eventually. “With the First Order decimated, I guess it’s going to be pretty boring.” 

“Kylo Ren is still out there,” Rey tried. 

Finn just shrugged. “ _I’m_ not the one who’s expected to kill him, am I? I want to watch our kids grow every day, and I want to help stormtroopers and watch them grow, and I—”

“Want to help plants grow,” Rey finished. 

“Yeah,” Finn said slowly. 

She supposed she understood that. 

After Finn’s display of power in the Force, she knew he was a match for Kylo Ren, but whether he _would_ do what needed to be done, when the time came, she couldn’t be sure. 

She nodded. That was good. Finn shouldn’t have to. Maybe in some sense, Kylo Ren was as much the responsibility of her line, of Obi-Wan Kenobi, as it was a Skywalker problem. Obi-Wan let Darth Vader plague the galaxy by not destroying him when he had a chance, and his legacy inspired Kylo Ren. 

As she laid her hand over her belly, Rey knew that when she got the chance again, she would not make the same mistake as her ancestor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, thank you for reading, and bearing with us through our posting delays! 
> 
> Second of all, no one asked who Mara Jade would be played by, but ~~if it's not too cliche to say Viola Davis,~~ we like to imagine her as played by Alfre Woodard. 
> 
> Third, we have an informal poll for you all! We already have the name of one twin picked out and we hope you're just as excited as we are to welcome Shara Jade Dameron to the family! However, we'd like to take an informal poll for the name of the other girl since we have several ideas we like:
> 
> -Skywalker (or Sky) [Luke is the last person who wants this but it's not his decision lol]  
> -Shmi [kind of a stupid name, but the great matriarch herself!]  
> -Satine [no legacy names from the Kenobi side yet!]  
> -Kylo Ren Sucks [doesn't fit the initial-S pattern]
> 
> Please comment with your vote! We're also open to suggestions for middle names.

**Author's Note:**

> Running List of OCs:
> 
>  **Berno Bey:** Male human, Poe's maternal grandfather.  
>  **Breha Bey:** Female human, Poe's cousin, of comparable age to Rey and Finn.  
>  **Coni:** Female human Resistance soldier. Likes illegal tackles in Boloball.  
>  **Deeks:** Male human ex-stormtrooper, now pilot for the Resistance, complete dork.  
>  **Jonorai:** Female Twi'lek in charge of the Resistance daycare center.  
>  **Jura Bey:** Female human, Poe's maternal grandmother.  
>  **Karlo Dameron:** Male human, Kes' brother.  
>  **Colonel Lightbridge:** Male human, Republic officer.  
>  **"Nana" Dameron:** Female human in her late 80s, Kes' mother. Suffers selective dementia.  
>  **Oren, Luka, Flash, and Zero:** Human ex-stormtroopers who now work the Dameron family farm as hired help.  
>  **Reist:** Nonbinary human Resistance soldier.  
>  **Dr. Rok Ori:** Male Chiss doctor who specializes in cybernetics and is obnoxious.  
>  **Rokko:** Female Zabrak tattoo artist.  
>  **Sall:** Female Bothan physical therapist for the Resistance.  
>  **Sam Organa Dameron:** Finn's clone rescued from a First Order cloning facility, adopted by Finn, Rey, and Poe. Drools a lot.  
>  **Sevens:** Nonbinary human ex-stormtrooper now Resistance soldier. Dating Jessika Pava.  
>  **Dr. Tamo Lan:** Female Ewok doctor of psychology, therapist for ex-stormtroopers.  
>  **Tano Bey:** Male human, Breha's husband. Childhood friends with Poe.  
>  **Timons:** Female human ex-First Order tech, was on the officer track before defecting. Major PTSD and anxiety.  
>  **Torch:** Male Zabrak Resistance soldier. Finn's second in command.
> 
> ...
> 
> Thank you for reading! Please let us know what you like or what we can improve on in the Comments. You can also come bother us on Tumblr at [Maeglinthebold](http://maeglinthebold.tumblr.com/) and [A-singer-of-songs](http://a-singer-of-songs.tumblr.com/).
> 
> As always, a shout-out to commenters and to the very supportive [SWWA](https://starwarswritingalliance.tumblr.com/)! 


End file.
